Convenience foods firm Greencore has issued a statement to say that the health and well-being of its employees is its 'number-one priority', following the news that close to 300 workers at its Northampton production facility have tested positive for COVID-19.
The company said that it has 'immediately conducted contact tracing' as a result of the outbreak, and instructed potentially affected colleagues to self-isolate.
Private Testing
Northamptonshire County Council confirmed that 213 of these workers tested positive due to private testing undertaken by Greencore, while 79 returned positive National Health Service tests.
'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,' the company said.
'We can confirm that a significant number of colleagues have tested positive for the virus and are now self-isolating.'
'Fully Supportive'
Greencore noted that PHE East Midlands, Northamptonshire County Council and Northampton Borough Council are 'fully supportive' of the controls the company has in place at its Northampton facility.
Northampton Borough Council and Public Health Northamptonshire issued a statement to say that the county has been experiencing a 'high number of cases' in the past four weeks, and encouraged businesses and workplaces to play a 'pivotal role' in mitigating the associated risks.
' It is evident that Greencore has highly effective measures in place and they continue to work extremely hard to exceed the requirements needed to be COVID-19 secure within the workplace,' they said.
© 2020 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
