38 staff test positive for coronavirus at Rowan Foods – Health Minister ‘concerned’ at North Wales outbreak

Rowan Foods on Wrexham Industrial Estate is the second food factory with confirmed coronavirus cases announced today.

Earlier, across in Anglesey 51 workers at the 2 Sisters plant in Llangefni are understood to have contracted COVID-19, with more than 200 people said to be self-isolating, in what the Health Minister called an ‘outbreak’.

Locally in Wrexham a food factory has also been affected, Oscar Mayer run four sites across the UK, including Rowan Foods on Wrexham Industrial Estate.

This afternoon Oscar Mayer released a statement, copied in full below:

The site has 38 staff absent due to testing positive for COVID 19, this is across our direct and agency workforce which totals 1500. We are very thankful that none of our colleagues are seriously ill or hospitalised from this virus.

Following notification of a positive COVID case we have worked with Public Health Wales and had already implemented a track and trace process to highlight any close contacts, these colleagues are required to isolate for a 14-day period of isolation. Any member of staff who has tested positive for COVID-19 is asked to isolate for at least 7 days.

The safety of our colleagues remains our priority and our focus is remaining COVID-19 secure as a site; we must do all we can to take individual responsibility and follow government guidelines at all times for our own safety and the safety of our colleagues. We have encouraged all staff to stay home if they have any potential COVID 19 symptoms, however mild these symptoms may be. 

As you would expect we have made significant operational changes at the site to maintain social distancing wherever practically possible, including various mitigations such as screens and visors where this is not always possible. All these changes have been made in conjunction with advice by the regional Environmental Health Officer. These measures have limited the impact on our teams.

We are aware through discussions with Public Health Wales that the Wrexham area is seeing significantly high numbers of positive cases, it is concerning but not surprising that we are seeing a number of our staff affected by this local trend. Similarly, we are experiencing a high number of staff required to isolate a large proportion of our teams are from the same household / family and interact outside of work as well as being work colleagues.

Whilst we are seeing a number of cases on site, Public Health Wales support our view that there is no clear evidence to suggest that there is a spread of the virus within the site, we are seeing a reflection on site of the increases in cases within the locality. We will continue to do all we can to remain vigilant and to keep our colleagues and families safe.

For context, the total reported new confirmed cases for Wales yesterday stood at 48.

In response to questions raised over the outbreak on Llangefni at today’s daily Welsh Government press conference, Health Minister Vaughan Gething said it reinforced the message that people should keep following public health guidance.

He said: “Given that this is a close setting in which these people would have been working, I’m obviously concerned that we may well see more confirmed cases of coronavirus.

“There is a proper outbreak that is being managed in the normal way we would manage significant outbreaks here in Wales.

“There’s partnership between Public Health Wales, the local health board, and indeed, Anglesey Council working together with the employer.

“I’d asked people to recognise that this reiterates the seriousness of the coronavirus, the need to follow the guidance.

“Get a test and follow the advice from test, trace and protect to self-isolate and to protect you, your family, and other people around you.”

Earlier today we pointed the Health Minister to the issues surfacing today, along with a report from ITV Wales who reported from inside Wrexham Maelor Hospital where staff said they had seen ‘numbers increase slightly’ possibly due to easing of lockdown.

Well worth 8mins of your time to see what is going on at the local hospital in this new report from ITV Wales. Starts with a coronavirus patient who had been for a single food shop https://t.co/tvXWhNNbV7

— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) June 17, 2020

We asked how the public can expect to be informed where there are areas of concern, or outbreaks, as prompt local awareness of concerns could help break the chains of transmission.

The Minister told us: “I think that’s the starting point what’s happening in Anglesey is located around a single employer and what’s happened within within that context.

“The broader point about Wrexham though, is about people continuing to support and follow the guidance we are giving on social distancing.

“If new areas of activity do open up the social distancing isn’t a ‘nice to have’. People cant, for example, think that if they’re wearing a mask, that it means that they’re immune, and can somehow ignore social distancing.

“So it’s important that all of us take our own share of responsibility for our own conduct. It matters not just to us but to other people.

“Equally, the message from the Government has to be clear to reiterate good hand hygiene continues to matter now, just as much as it did at the start of the pandemic, following the social distancing guidance really matters because that in itself was one of the best defences to put off any further rise in Coronavirus activity.

“We will be transparent with local population with what’s happening in that area. If we need to take local action, we’ll do so. And all of those things will feed into the national choices that I make with ministerial colleagues about the future of Wales, how we keep Wales safe, as we look to ease out of lockdown.”