First Minister could revisit 2 metre law for business “when we know more about the circumstances in Llangefni and in Wrexham”

The First Minister is awaiting further details of outbreaks in North Wales before possibly reassessing the 2 metre rule that is in force for businesses in Wales.

On Thursday, 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 the Rowan Foods factory on Wrexham Industrial Estate was also confirmed as connected to a ‘cluster’, or as the First Minister described it a ‘flare up’. Previously staff at the factory had walked out ‘in protest over concerns about coronavirus working conditions’.

Yesterday Oscar Mayer the owners of Rowan Foods said in a statement, “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.”

We asked the First Minister Mark Drakeford if he was aware of the previous concerns at the Wrexham location, and if the two cases in North Wales were investigated by officials.

We also asked if the regulations, that sees a 2 metre rule in law but backed up with a £60 fine, would be reviewed or any proactive monitoring would take place of factories around Wales. The rules in Wales require businesses ‘take all reasonable measures to ensure that a distance of 2 metres is maintained between any persons on the business premises’, however the definition of ‘reasonable’ is highly flexible, with Welsh Government themselves stating “There is no hard and fast rule of what constitutes a reasonable measure.”

The First Minister said, “Yes, of course, we are aware of the incidents back in April, when staff members drew attention to issues at the factory. I know that the police attended at the time and were satisfied with what they saw at the time and that the Health and Safety Executive has been involved in the meantime, I spoke myself yesterday with Unite the Union, about their view of the position in North Wales.

“Of course, we will now have people more directly involved in the outbreak at Rowan Foods in Wrexham and we will learn more as a result of the investigations that will be taken forward.

“Whether we need to do more to toughen or enforce the two meter rule which is in our regulations here in Wales, and we’ve worked very hard with employers who want to make that work and work properly. I’ll come to conclusions on that when we know more about the circumstances in Llangefni and in Wrexham”

On Anglesey schools will not reopen on June 29 due to concerns over 2 Sisters coronavirus outbreak – more here on www.North.Wales .

Public Health Wales did not respond to our request for comment.