The past few days have been worrying times for Attleborough – with over 100 staff now at the Banham Poultry site having tested positive for Coronavirus.
That’s why I remain firmly focussed on this issue and am calling for a proper, locally-led Track and Trace operation to be put in place ASAP to ensure that the outbreak is contained and not allowed to spread to the wider community and throughout our region’s farming and food processing industries – key components of our local economy.
My Quote to the EDP today…
“The Covid outbreak in staff at Banham Poultry has highlighted real issues with the Track and Trace system being run centrally from London by the NHS.
Tracing factory staff in our food processing sector – often low paid, overseas agency staff living in hostels cheek-by-jowel with workers in other plants – needs local knowledge.
To prevent infection spreading to other factories and towns, we need to trace, test and track all 800 Banham staff and their close contacts much more quickly.
That can’t be done with an APP or by NHS staff in London sending emails. It needs a team of local council staff and volunteers knocking on doors.
Louise Smith, the Head of Public Health in Norfolk, and our local Norfolk Public Health officers did a brilliant job stopping a pandemic in our care homes. They and local councils should be running track and trace. Not an NHS unit in London.”
Relevant Links
- My previous web-stories on this issue can be found: here and here
- Today's (3rd September) EDP article
- Tuesday's EDP article
(Please note that there have been a number of articles in the EDP on this issue over recent days. All can be found at their website: here)