Serial Covid-19 testing of meat plant staff suspended

A pop-up Covid-19 test centre in Dublin. Picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

Serial Covid-19 testing of staff in meat factories and food processing facilities has been suspended.

The HSE said this is because there has been a rise in testing demand, which almost trebled on Monday.

It added that the mass testing in meat plants will resume next week.

The serial testing began on August 21 and since then there has been 40 positive cases.

In a statement, the HSE said: “Covid-19 testing of staff at meat and food processing facilities is being re-scheduled into next week.

“This is a precautionary measure to allow us focus our resources on meeting the significant rise in demand for testing among people with coronavirus symptoms in the community.

“Testing demand nearly trebled on Monday with a requirement for over 13,000 community tests and over 3,000 hospital tests.

“We are liaising directly with the facilities scheduled for testing and will be re-scheduling planned testing next week.

“It is important to remember that where an outbreak occurs in a plant then normal mass testing will still occur in meat plants.

“Public Health will be in touch locally in those situations. In the meantime, if a staff member develops symptoms of coronavirus, we would ask them to self-isolate and phone a GP to be referred for a free coronavirus test.

“Serial testing in meat plants which commenced on 21 August has yielded 40 positive cases so far and a positivity rate of .28%.” 

Independent TD Denis Naughten, meanwhile, says the suspension is unacceptable.

“The programme of testing of the meat plants has only just commenced,” he said.

“The HSE should have been doing this over the last number of months and shouldn’t have long fingered this issue.


“It is a priority to deal with the problem that has been ongoing in meat plants across the country, that has led to various outbreaks of infection across the country.

“And it’s an imperative that we irradiate this problem from meat plans as soon as possible.” 

Earlier today, three more deaths due to Covid-19 were reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.

There has been 84 new cases of coronavirus here.

It brings the death toll in Ireland from the virus to 1,781 while the total number of cases stands at 30,164.

51 of today’s cases are in Dublin with six in Offaly and five in Kildare.

The remaining 22 cases are located in Cork, Donegal, Galway, Mayo, Meath, Roscommon, Tipperary, Westmeath and Wicklow.

"We continue to see a concerning pattern of cases, particularly in Dublin," said Dr Ronan Glynn, Acting Chief Medical Officer.

"Transmission is diffuse across the county, is in all age groups and is mainly being driven by social interaction within and between households."