Covid leapt from factories into communities
Despite health measures, the virus has radiated from factories and now communities are at risk, writes Maeve Sheehan
THE virus made its presence felt at Kildare Chilling in late July, just as the August bank holiday was approaching. The plant, near Kildare town, where livestock, lamb and beef, are killed and boned had taken rigorous precautions. Everyone who presented at the factory gates on the Dublin Road had their temperature checked during the pandemic.
The workforce is a mix of locals and foreign nationals, most of whom live in the county. The overseas workers share accommodation in rented houses. “It’s hard to get a skilled man for boning now. The money isn’t in it for the hardship that’s involved,” said a worker at the plant, known as John, who asked not to be identified. “It takes maybe two years to make a living at it, to get your body hardened to it and to get the speed up, so you can stay with the line and make some money out of it.”
Work practices were changed to introduce social distancing, especially in the boning halls — the toughest place on the floor. Boners had to wear visors and the supervisors would remind the men — for the workforce is mostly men — to sanitise regularly.
“Everyone coming into the plant was being checked for symptoms at the gate, but no one was showing symptoms. Then one man was sent home last Friday,” said John.
“We got one confirmed case on the lambing side and that was closed down,” he said.
Blanket testing of the 350strong workforce began and the scale of the infection began to emerge — most of it invisible, even to hosts who were carrying the virus.
In a statement last week, Kildare Chilling Company did not disclose how many of its workers tested positive for Covid-19. It said it is working with the HSE, and “full contact tracing has been undertaken, affected staff are isolating and further testing is being undertaken in line with HSE recommendations”.
But according to workers at the plant, on the lambing side of the house alone around 40 people had tested positive and more positive cases have also emerged on the beef side.
John said “five or six boners on one line” tested positive. On Friday, he got a text to say one of his colleagues was on his way to hospital. He had tested positive and was having difficulty breathing. This man was an exception.
One of the most alarming aspects for public health officials, management and the staff is the numbers of people who tested positive but showed no symptoms. According to John, who was tested for the virus last week, colleagues who have tested positive are horrified they have been mingling with their families and communities, unknowingly harbouring the virus.
“We seem to have survived the first batch [of the pandemic] fairly well, although now, it turns out we could all have had it and we wouldn’t know because we weren’t showing any symptoms. That’s the scary part,” John said.
“Any guys that are out [with Covid-19] now were working away, not a bother on them. No symptoms.”
SIGNIFICANT SURGE
The outbreaks of Covid-19 in four plants across Kildare, Offaly and Laois are a case study in how Covid-19 radiates invisibly through communities, and a test of the Government’s response to the first significant surge of the virus since the contagion began to subside in June.
Over the last two weeks numbers have been rising in the midlands, more so than in other counties. But the warning note was sounded last Thursday when the National Public Health Emergency Team announced the daily toll of positive cases that evening was 69 — up from 50 the previous evening and 45 the one before that. Kildare, Offaly and Laois accounted for almost half of new cases in the previous 14 days.
Acting chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said a surge in cases in the midlands was largely linked to outbreaks in food processing plants, but there were also clusters in three direct provision centres.
Some of the workers had been employed in the Irish Dog Foods factory in Naas, Co Kildare which closed for a deep clean after a coronavirus cluster was confirmed there.
It is the second outbreak to hit the meat and food processing industries since the last outbreak at 20 sites in late May and June — despite the significant public health precautions introduced. How the latest outbreaks began is not clear. The fact a second wave of infection has followed so soon has raised the question as to whether more could have been done to anticipate the outbreaks and to move quicker when they occurred.
The HSE has outlined the challenges in dealing with the outbreaks: language barriers in a workforce that has high numbers of staff from other countries, and workers sharing accommodation and transport to and from work, to save costs. Greg Ennis, of the trade union Siptu, has been warning about the risk factors unique to meat processing since the outbreak in March: close working proximity; noisy machinery that obliges people to shout to be heard, and air cooling systems circulating air around the plants. There is also the issue of low pay, and agency work is common, so staff move between plants.
DIRECT PROVISION
The cycle of infection encompassed Direct Provision Centres in Laois and Kildare where some residents worked at Irish Dog Foods. The HSE began testing of hotels such as the Montague in Portlaoise late last week. With all of this knowledge, could an intervention have been staged sooner?
Allan Shine is CEO of the Kildare County Chamber, representing 400 local businesses, including the meat processing plants. He said O’Brien Fine Foods remains closed and staff have been sent home on full pay. Irish Dog Foods was due to reopen tomorrow, but that is unlikely given Friday’s restrictions. Kildare Chilling remains open.
With speculation about a regional lockdown circulating,
Mr Shine spent all of Friday on the phone trying to reach politicians, doctors, officials with one request: bring on the testing. “Our message was community testing. No kneejerk reaction. Community testing. We all know the towns that have the outbreak,” he said. “Go into the community today and test large numbers of people. Get the results on Monday. Then make an informed decision.”
The HSE yesterday mobilised the National Ambulance Service to the region for popup testing and promised to provide isolation facilities for those who cannot do so at home. Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, said he will be meeting the HSE in the coming days. It is not quite the blanket, targeted testing response that Mr Shine hoped for.
The economic impact of the restrictions will see hotels, restaurants, cafes and businesses closed or curtailed for the next two weeks.
“The major shock here was businesses learned of the restrictions for the first time on the 6pm news on Friday evening,” Mr Shine said. One hotel in the county had just spent €7,500 on perishable foods to service guests in the hotel over the weekend. “It is Armageddon for businesses like that,” he said.
John got his test results this weekend and tested positive.
“I’m not surprised,” he said. “All of the lads who have been on to me have tested positive, and that’s around 10.”
He does not get sick pay and will sign up for the pandemic unemployment payment. He is paid a percentage per kilo — more than his Brazilian colleagues, who were employed via a government permit scheme and who are on €13.65 per hour.
“I tried to do everything right in there because I didn’t want to bring it home, but I couldn’t afford to stay out as I had to get a week’s wages.”