14 workers at chocolate factory test positive for Covid

Health officials looking into outbreak at site – second seen by same company during the pandemic

Fourteen workers at a chocolate factory in Norfolk have tested positive for Covid-19, a confectionary company has announced.

The coronavirus outbreak at the Kinnerton Confectionery site in Fakenham has hit production in a “limited” way, with some operations transferred to sister factories.

The chocolate maker said extra social distancing measures had now been in place – but Norfolk County Council and local public health officials are now looking into the flare-up at the site.

Factory director Michael Artt said the cases had been discovered after the testing of staff last week as part of a “data gathering exercise”.

“With the increase in incidence of Covid-19 across the region, a small number of our colleagues have tested positive – currently 14 out of a total workforce of over 600 people,” said Mr Artt.

The director told the Eastern Daily Press there was no plans to test all staff at the factory – the biggest employer in Fakenham. The company has not revealed how many employees in total were having to self-isolate at home.

Mr Artt added: “We are working proactively with the local public health team and Norfolk County Council, who are very supportive of our actions.”

He said the company had put in place extra cleaning, extra personal protective equipment (PPE), more social distancing measures such as screens, and changed shift times to prevent congestion in the factory.

“There has been a limited effect on production, but we have been able to mitigate … by transferring some packing work to our sister factories,” Mr Artt added.

It is not the first time the company has been hit with multiple cases of the Covid-19. In September, 16 members of staff at Kinnerton Confectionery’s factory in north Yorkshire also tested positive.

Dozens of food factories across the UK have been hit by major outbreak of the virus since the pandemic began.

Last month two workers at a food supplier making Marks & Spencer salads died after contracting Covid-19. Regular testing was introduced at the Bakkavor site in Kent following the outbreak.

Lawrence Young, professor of molecular oncology at the University of Warwick, said factories were “perfect environments” for coronavirus to linger and spread. He said: “Virus-containing droplets from infected individuals are more likely to spread, settle and stay viable.”