Some 103 new cases of coronavirus in meat plants have been reported by the Department of Health.

This brings the total number of cases to 925. Meat Industry Ireland (MII) previously said that 60% of infected workers have recovered and were back at work. Speaking at a weekly press conference, Department representatives said that each cluster in meat factories had been assigned a local outbreak team who were managing the outbreak, including contact tracing.

Inspections

Concerns have been raised by TDs over outbreaks in meat factories, particularly over the issue of Health and Safety Authority (HSA) inspections and whether they were announced or unannounced.

Sinn Féin’s Brian Stanley said factories must not be warned that they are due to receive an inspection.

Despite receiving complaints regarding factories, the HSA did not conduct any inspections until last week.

It said this was due to an overlap with the HSE, which did not allow it to complete inspections.

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