Covid: 256 workers at Cranswick Country Foods test positive

Cranswick Country Foods is based on Brandon Road on the outskirts of Watton

More than 250 workers have tested positive for Covid-19 after an outbreak at a meat processing plant, a director of public health has said.

Around 1,000 staff at Cranswick County Foods at Watton in Norfolk have now been tested for the virus.

Norfolk County Council director of public health Dr Louise Smith said she did not expect any further increase to the 256 positive results.

Many of the staff were asymptomatic and were now self-isolating, she said.

• Covid-19: Latest rates for Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk

• Antibodies 'fall rapidly after Covid infection'

• Don't hold home firework displays, urge doctors

Dr Smith said Norfolk appeared to be coming into the second peak of the pandemic two or three weeks earlier than had been originally forecast.

She said there were currently 113 patients in the three hospitals serving the county.

Without the lockdown, the second peak had risked having double the number of people admitted to hospital compared to the first peak, she said.

The first peak for Norfolk was reached on 21 April when 263 patients were in hospital.

Cranswick is one of several meat processing plants that have experienced an outbreak of coronavirus among staff

Cranswick is one of several meat processing plants that have experienced an outbreak of coronavirus among staff.

Turkey producer Bernard Matthews in Holton, Suffolk, has been affected since last month, and a small number of workers at its site in Great Witchingham, Norfolk, tested positive.

Banham Poultry in Norfolk closed for two weeks in August and September when more than 120 staff had the virus.

• EASY STEPS: How to keep safe

• A SIMPLE GUIDE: What are the symptoms?

• MAPS AND CHARTS: Visual guide to the outbreak

• TRAVEL PLANS: What are your rights?

• PUBLIC TRANSPORT: What's the risk?