Council issue outbreak update: 1067 people tested and councillors told 19 more people test positive taking total to 185

Wrexham Council have said 1000 people have been tested for coronavirus in connection with the local outbreak, with another document passed to us indicating 185 people have tested positive.

The council have shared a councillor-wide update on the local coronavirus pandemic from Councillor Hugh Jones, Lead Member for Communities, Partnerships, Public Protection and Community Safety.

In his briefing he outlines the background to the outbreak at Rowan Foods which employs approximately 1400 staff and the Track Trace Protect process “going forward”.

A second briefing PDF has been passed to us, containing further details, which is at the bottom of this article.

We have copied the entire update as released by Wrexham Council to us below:

Following the implementation of the new Test, Trace and Protect system a number of Covid-19 positive cases linked to the factory were identified and an Incident Management team (later forming into an Outbreak Control Team) was established. This team is led by Public Health Wales (PHW), with support from other partners included WCBC, BCUHB, The Health & Safety Executive and the Food Standards Agency.

Once identified a mobile testing station was quickly sent to Rowan Food to test all workers to establish the extent of the outbreak. To date 1067 workers have been tested.

All positive cases have been forwarded to the WCBC TTP team and given the demands, other Welsh Councils, most notably Powys, Swansea and Denbighshire and BCUHB has supported our team. The TTP project is a partnership involving all Welsh LAs, Health Boards and Public Health Wales in one Wales approach. Translation services are available and have been used.

“All contacts of confirmed cases have been given the appropriate advice from Public HealthWales.”

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) visited Rowan Foods on the 25th June. The inspector reported that he was satisfied that the company has taken all reasonable measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 on the site.

Our officers raised the concerns of the community in relation to the outbreak on the reopening our schools. The Outbreak Control Team has not recommended any specific control measures with regards to educational facilities be taken.

The town centre has re-opened within Government guidelines. Members of the Council and the public are reminded that Wrexham is open for business and looking forward to seeing people return to support our local traders whilst using all appropriate safety measures that are in place to safeguard them.

We will continue to work with all our partner agencies to continue to protect our communities against Covid-19.

The TTP process will continue and the success of the quick identification and response to the situation at Rowan Foods is a testament to its success.”

Members will continue to receive updates re the situation at Rowan Foods as it progresses.

The above update does not contain any new confirmed case figure. At lunchtime we asked the First Minister for information around that, and he said further details would be provided “before the end of the afternoon”. Today’s regular Public Health Wales update did not give a figure for Wrexham.

Currently the last update on the confirmed cases figure, of 166 people, is based off information released at lunchtime on Friday – just over three days ago at the time of writing.

Thankfully councillors have forwarded us their, fuller, version of the update circulated internally that gives a range of extra information as well as revealing that 185 people have tested positive for coronavirus – an increase of 19 cases since Friday’s data.

It also reveals that 70% of the tests came back within 24 hours.

Background
Rowan Foods, located on Wrexham Industrial Estate, is a ready meal manufacturer (approved meat products) which supplies a number of the major national retailers. It has approximately 140 product lines and produces approximately 2 million meals per week.
The factory employ’s approximately 1400 staff, with a significant percentage (potentially between 500 & 600) of those being agency personnel. The use of agency staff is as a result of seasonal demand for ready meal products.
Following the identification of a number of Covid-19 positive cases linked to Rowan Foods via the new ‘Test, Tract and Protect’ systems an Incident Management team (later forming into an Outbreak Control Team) was established and led by Public Health Wales (PHW), with support from other partners included WCBC, BCUHB, The Health & Safety Executive and the Food Standards Agency.
Testing
A mobile testing station was sent to Rowan Food to test all workers and establish the extent of the outbreak. To date 1067 workers have been tested with a 185 testing positive and 856 negative. We are awaiting 26 test results which are yet to be cross referenced. A further 300 workers are yet to be tested with 150 of these either currently shielding or on long term absence (these will not be tested). The remaining 150 will be tested in the next 48 hours. The turnaround time for 742 of the samples was actually within 24 hours.
Trace
All positive cases have been forwarded to the WCBC TTP team and given the demands, other Welsh Councils, most notably Powys, Swansea and Denbighshire and BCUHB has supported our team. The TTP project is a partnership involving all Welsh LAs, Health Boards and Public Health Wales in one Wales approach. Translation services are available and have been used, these include Polish speaking contact traces and the Council’s contracted translation service has been made available to the other local authorities.
All contacts of confirmed cases should isolate for 14 from exposure (or onset for household members) and any symptomatic individuals should be excluded for 7 days and offered testing. Contacts will be traced through the TTP system as normal.
Protect
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) visited Rowan Foods on the 25th June. The inspector reported that he was satisfied that the company has taken all reasonable measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 on the site.
Schools
Our officers raised the concerns of the community in relation to the outbreak on the reopening our schools. The Outbreak Control Team has not recommended any control measures with regards to educational facilities. Whilst it is recognised that children in households being identified as having Covid-19 may attend local schools or key worker hubs, as of today there is no reason to believe that the controls currently in place for these settings need amending.
Conclusion
We will continue to work with all our partner agencies in relation to testing, tracing and protecting our communities against Covid-19. The identification of the outbreak, the assessment as to it extent and implementation of measure to prevent its spread is an example of the TTP success. This has been undertaken in a matter of days and these actions will continue t be undertaken in order to protect our communities going forward.

It is not clear why that information was not been made public officially.