Nearly 300 people test positive for coronavirus in Greencore food company in England
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Topics: ENGLAND
Health officials are dealing with the outbreak in the Greencore food company which has seen 299 confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to Lucy Wightman, director of public health at Northamptonshire County Council.
A spokesman for the company, which employs 2,100 people, said those who tested positive were self isolating.
The confirmed test results may force the town in England's Midlands region into local lockdown.
Wightman said 79 workers tested positive through National Health Service (NHS) tests while 220 positive results came back from Greencore's private testing.
"Northampton borough has been experiencing a high number of cases over the last four weeks and residents and employees have been asked to 'act now' to follow additional measures, to avoid a local lockdown or further government intervention," Wightman said.
Greencore said in a statement that the company took the decision to proactively test workers as a result of a rise in cases in the Northampton area.
Over the past seven days, there were 70 new confirmed cases in Northampton alone and the infection rate is well above the county rate with 580 cases per 100,000 population.
Greencore has a number of factories across Britain and makes food for supermarkets according to media reports. ■