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The Department of Health has confirmed that there are now 10 separate clusters of COVID-19 cases in meat plants in the country.
The deputy chief medical officer Ronan Glynn said there are clusters across a range of different types of workplaces but the main one is meat processing facilities.
“As of yesterday [Thursday, 7 April], there have been 10 clusters across 10 different facilities, with a total of 566 cases,” he said at the daily coronavirus briefing on Friday.
A special team has been assembled to deal with the issue in meat factories.
“There's an outbreak control team in place for each of those clusters, but the HSE convened a national outbreak control team yesterday,” said Glynn.
“They'll be taking a range of actions to mitigate and prevent onward spread of that, including production of guidance for the meat processing facilities around the country.”
Closures
Last week, Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed told the Dáil that his Department was aware of six clusters of COVID-19 in meat plants.
Dawn Meats temporarily closed its Kilbeggan plant and Rosderra Meats confirmed that staff from its Roscrea site were self-isolating following positive HSE testing.
Figures from the Health Protection and Surveillance Centre website on Wednesday indicated that up to 20% of all workplace clusters are in meat factories.
According to the HSE, a cluster is reported when two or more cases are linked.
The Irish Farmers Journal understands that earlier this week, personal protective equipment (PPE), in the form of masks, was supplied by the Department of Agriculture to meat factory workers in Kepak Athleague.
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