3rd meat plant shut down in UK local COVID-19 outbreak
LONDON — A meat processing plant in West Yorkshire has been shut down amid a localized outbreak of COVID-19, the third such site to shut down in the United Kingdom in recent days.
The shutdown of the Yorkshire plant follows further outbreaks in food processing sites in Anglesey and Wrexham in North Wales.
Asda confirmed that its subsidiary, Kober, had decided to close a plant in Cleckheaton.
It said that as soon as it became aware of the outbreak, it “responded swiftly and worked collaboratively with the local authority and Public Health England to test all colleagues.’’
Doctors and local officials in the community have expressed frustration at the announcement because they say they first learned about it when Health Secretary Matt Hancock mentioned “as cluster of cases’’ in the Kirklees area during the daily Downing Street news conference on Thursday.
