Another three cases of coronavirus have been confirmed at a meat processing factory in the Midlands.
Tulip Ltd confirmed on Friday that three employees, including two from the same household, had tested positive after a fresh batch of tests were carried out on more than 100 staff on Monday.
All three, alongside other employees who may have been infected during close contact, are isolating at home.
The company said it was continuing to work with Public Health England Midlands, the Health and Safety Executive, the local NHS and Sandwell council, after confirmation of other coronavirus cases last week.
Dr Lisa McNally, Sandwell’s director of public health, said: “We have now proactively tested 104 staff at Tulip Ltd for coronavirus and have had three positive cases. Tulip has asked a further 16 employees to isolate at home as a precautionary measure.
“The site has had a number of cases since the outbreak of Covid-19 in the UK and are able to report that they have all returned to work safely. We will be conducting further testing across the workforce in the coming days so that we can identify and isolate any further positive cases.”
There have been 35 cases among the company’s 640 employees in Tipton since the beginning of the outbreak in March.
In a statement, Tulip said: “Our team members at Tipton are key workers who have responded to this global pandemic in the most challenging of circumstances; their health and wellbeing is of the utmost importance and we welcome the support of health authorities.
“We continue to work in partnership with health authorities to prevent the further spread of Covid-19 among our workforce, at work and in the community, as we provide food for the country during these unprecedented times.”
On Thursday more than 450 workers at four food factories in England and Wales tested positive for coronavirus. Health officials were closely monitoring clusters of new cases linked to food processing plants, amid concerns about potential outbreaks similar to those in France and the US. In the US, as many as 25,000 meat and poultry workers have reportedly contracted Covid-19, with at least 93 deaths.
