'Meat barons playing with lives': Plant with 226 Covid cases never shut down

It has emerged there were 226 cases of Covid-19 associated with one plant in July. Picture: Vadim Ghirda/AP

The meat industry and health authorities have been slammed after it emerged that a meat plant in Cork had 226 positive Covid cases but never closed down, creating a major health risk.

Local politicians have hit out at the failure of the meat industry and the HSE to move more swiftly to contain the outbreak at the plant or to alert the local communities, describing their actions as “totally unacceptable”.