Almost 300 sandwich factory workers test positive for coronavirus

Greencore said some of its staff are self-isolating after a significant number tested positive for coronavirus.

A spokeswoman for Northamptonshire County Council said 79 people returned positive NHS tests and a further 213 tested positive through Greencore’s private testing.

The company took the decision to proactively test workers as a result of a rise in cases in the town.

In a statement, Greencore said: “As a result of the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the Northampton area, we took the decision to start proactively testing all of the colleagues at our Northampton site.

“We can confirm that a number of colleagues have tested positive for the virus and are now self-isolating.

“We are liaising closely with PHE East Midlands, Northamptonshire County Council and Northampton Borough Council, who are fully supportive of the controls that we have on site.”

The company added: “In each case we have immediately conducted contact tracing and instructed potentially affected colleagues to self-isolate.

“All of Greencore’s sites have wide-ranging social distancing measures, stringent hygiene procedures and regular temperature checking in place, and we are doing everything that we can to keep our people safe.”

Lucy Wightman, director of public health at Northamptonshire County Council, said employees have been asked to “act now” after the number of confirmed cases in the town increased from 66 in the week ending August 2 to 85 for the week ending August 9.