Town facing lockdown af ter M&S supplier hit by outbreak
NORTHAMPTON was facing lockdown last night after almost 300 workers at a sandwich factory supplying Marks & Spencer tested positive for coronavirus.
Food giant Greencore said it decided to start ‘proactively testing’ staff at the factory after a spike in cases in the area.
Northamptonshire County Council said 79 staff on the site, which employs more than 2,000, received positive results from NHS tests.
A further 213 employees then tested positive through Greencore’s private testing, which it rolled out after the 79 cases were identified. Experts say there is no evidence that the public can become infected from sandwiches made in the factory.
The town, with a population of more than 200,000, has the twelfth highest rate of coronavirus infections in England with the equivalent of 38 positive cases for every 100,000 people.
The number of confirmed cases has increased from 67 in the week ending August 1 to 85 for the week ending August 8.
Lucy Wightman, director of public health at Northamptonshire County Council, said there could be up to 100 additional cases at the factory as the results for between 300 and 400 workers are yet to come back.
She told the BBC that the outbreak was ‘about how people behave outside of Greencore, not at work’ – adding that if individuals failed to follow the rules ‘a possible local lockdown will follow’. Northampton was already on the watchlist for a local lockdown after the rise in infections in the town over the past ten days.
Production is said to be continuing as usual as the Greencore site. The firm is the country’s largest maker of pre-packed sandwiches and makes them for all major supermarkets.
Dr Mike Ryan, of the World Health Organisation, played down the danger of coronavirus being passed on through food.
He said: People should not fear food, food packaging or delivery of food. There is no evidence the food chain is participating in transmission of this virus.’
One of those to test positive was Bakers’ Union branch secretary at the factory, Nicolae Macari.
He said he tested positive on August 4, along with his mother and father – who also work at Greencore – and his wife.
He told the BBC: ‘When suddenly three or four people are pulled out of a line because they have tested positive, people are terrified.’
Greencore said in a statement: ‘As a result of the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the Northampton area, we took the decision to start proactively testing all of the colleagues at our Northampton site.
‘We can confirm that a number of colleagues have tested positive for the virus and are now self-isolating.
‘We are liaising closely with PHE East Midlands, Northamptonshire County Council and Northampton Borough Council.’
‘People should not fear food’