Banham Poultry: Anti-Covid measures for chicken factory hit by outbreak

Banham Poultry has installed five sanitisation portals at its entrances

Disinfectant machines have been introduced at a chicken processing factory where more than 130 workers tested positive for Covid-19.

Banham Poultry, based in Attleborough, Norfolk, closed for about two weeks after the outbreak and had to get rid of almost £4m worth of birds.

The new machines spray disinfectant onto the clothes and skin of workers.

The firm’s boss said he "certainly would have considered" adding them in earlier had he known about them.

The plant has installed five sanitisation portals at its entrances.

The company supplies chicken products to supermarkets

The walk-in booths have artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology to identify employees and check body temperatures.

As well as the booths, portable hand-held “fogging” machines, spray a fine mist of disinfectant.

Blaine van Rensburg, managing director of Banham Poultry, said: “The Covid-security of our site is not negotiable to us."

Mr van Rensburg said many of the measures would be "permanent fixtures".

He added: “Had I known these were available [at the start of the pandemic] I certainly would have considered them.”

The company is a major employer in south Norfolk with about 1,100 staff

Other preventative measures adopted since the outbreak include single-use protective clothing and door handles which automatically dispense hand-sanitiser when touched.

Staff continue to wear face coverings, a pre-existing policy.

During the outbreak, Norfolk public health director Dr Louise Smith said the 21.2% infection rate was high and considered "a significant national outbreak".

The closure of the factory meant 2.2m chickens were not processed and the company had to cull about 380,000.

Mr van Rensburg have previously said the total stock loss was £3.8m.