Covid testing in meat plants to resume next week

Coronavirus testing will resume in meat plants next week, says Tánaiste Leo Varadkar. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Serial testing in meat factories, which has been halted since Tuesday, will resume next week according to the Tánaiste.

There has been widespread concern that testing in these premises was paused after testing capacity became strained due to a rise in cases in the wider community.

There are currently four clusters associated with meat plants.

HSE boss Paul Reid defended the decision to suspend serial testing of workers at meat plants.

He said the decision is the kind of "agile" move health officials need to take in order to prioritise testing for those who need it most. The testing has resulted in a positivity rate of 0.27% among the workers, uncovering around 40 cases, the HSE said.

The decision to prioritise tests to meet demand from people being referred by GPs was made in response to a surge in such requests early this week, Mr Reid said. On Monday, there 13,000 such referrals and there were 8,000 on Tuesday.

Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty told Leo Varadkar during today's leader's questions that the halting of testing was "incredibly reckless" and "short-sighted".

"Meat factories have been the site of numerous clusters, and were one of the main reasons for the regional lockdowns," he said.

"Last week, workers in Tipperary tested positive for Covid-19, and mass testing of all workers was set to begin yesterday.

"Instead, workers at the factory received a text message informing them the agency had ceased Covid-19 testing with immediate effect. 

No other private industry has more of an impact on Covid-19 than the meat and food processing sector, that is without doubt, and that is because meat factory workers are particularly vulnerable, due to the poor working conditions in those factories that leads to increased transmission and increased risk in the communities.

Mr Doherty noted that Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue said on radio on Wednesday that serial testing in meat plants had commenced.

"We now know that these tests had already been cancelled. You couldn't make this up," he said.

Leo Varadkar said the HSE had commenced a programme of serial testing in meat plants and food production plants on August 21.

"They're testing people who have no symptoms and the number of positives that comes back is very small," he said.

"At times of high demand, when there are a lot of patients with symptoms who need to be tested, those patients have to be prioritised and that's what happened the last couple of days.

"Of course if somebody's in a nursing home, or a meat plant or a direct provision accommodation centre, show symptoms they're prioritised too."

Mr Varadkar added in his response that he welcomed Sinn Fein's vice president Michelle O'Neill's expression of regrets for attending Republican leader Bobby Storey's funeral.