NHS Tayside has postponed plans to reintroduce indoor care home visits across the region from Monday after the coronavirus cluster connected to the 2 Sisters’ factory in Coupar Angus hit 110.
Ninety-six chicken factory workers and 14 community contacts have now tested positive for Covid-19 – a 20 person increase from yesterday.
The jump has forced the health body to bring in the new measures regarding indoor care home visits.
A spokesperson for NHS Tayside said: “Partners agreed that the reintroduction of indoor visiting across Tayside could not go ahead, given the ongoing management of the outbreak of COVID-19 associated with the 2 Sisters factory, in addition to other localised cases and clusters in Tayside.
“Indoor visiting for end-of-life care or to support a resident’s wellbeing at times of distress can continue, as long as all infection prevention and control measures are in place, including appropriate use of PPE.
“Outdoor visiting can also continue.”
Dr Emma Fletcher, Associate Director of Public Health for NHS Tayside, said, “The increase in positive cases linked to the factory again today is in line with what we expected and we continue to undertake detailed contact tracing of all cases to ensure everyone fully understands what action they must take.
“Over the last week in Tayside as a whole, more than 2500 tests have been taken at the testing sites across the area, including the two dedicated facilities in Coupar Angus and Dundee brought in specifically to support testing of 2 Sisters factory workers.
“Hundreds of workers have attended for testing and given the volume of testing which has now been completed, we expect positive cases to continue to rise in the coming days as tests are processed and we receive the results.
“All workers and their household contacts, including children, should be self-isolating until 31 August and that is even if they have a negative result. “
