Over 450 Covid-19 cases reported at food factories in England and Wales

[Northerner]

More than 450 workers at four food factories across England and Wales have tested positive for coronavirus.

Kirklees council confirmed on Thursday that 165 employees of an Asda-owned meat processing site in West Yorkshire had contracted the disease after they had fallen ill earlier this month.

The Kober site, which employs more than 500 people, resumed production on Tuesday with “significant adjustments” to support physical distancing, the council’s director of public of health said.

It is the fourth food factory in England and Wales to have confirmed an outbreak of Covid-19 among workers, bringing the number of employees testing positive for the virus to 469.

Over 450 Covid-19 cases reported at food factories in England and Wales

Meat factories’ working conditions may contribute to higher risk of spreading coronavirus

www.theguardian.com

I remember outbreaks in meat packing factories being reported in the US many weeks ago and wondered why, and also why it wasn't happening here. Perhaps it has always been happening here, but our test and trace system was so rubbish (if not non-existent, at the start) that we simply didn't know where the hotspots were Perhaps what was happening in the US could have been used as a warning to put special measures in place to reduce or prevent this? Or would that imply that the government was actually paying attention to what was happening elsewhere? 🙄

 

[Robin]

There’s currently a large outbreak in a meat packing plant in Germany, and I thought they were supposed to be ahead of the game on everything.

Coronavirus: What went wrong at Germany's Gütersloh meat factory?

More than 1,500 workers at the Tönnies meat processing factory in Gütersloh have contracted Covid19.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Bruce Stephens]

I remember outbreaks in meat packing factories being reported in the US many weeks ago and wondered why, and also why it wasn't happening here. Perhaps it has always been happening here, but our test and trace system was so rubbish (if not non-existent, at the start) that we simply didn't know where the hotspots were

That would be my guess. Until fairly recently only people who ended up in hospital were likely to get tested, so presuming not too many got sick enough we might not have noticed the connection. (Though as you say we should have been looking harder.)

 

[grovesy]

The scientist 's seem to think that there are multiple factors to play in these food processing factories. The ones in Germany also are manned by immigrant workers , who live in low cost housing and share living quarters, and was footage of them hanging out of windows and balconies on one of news outlets.