'Health experts will decide if meat plants must close' - Creed

Speaking on RTE Radio yesterday, Minister Creed said "should it be deemed a necessary step that any one or all of these (meat plants) should close. Then that is what will happen".

However, he stressed that such a decision would be taken by public health experts on the HSE's local and national outbreak teams.

He further said that less than one in four of the meat plants have an 'issue' with coronavirus.

"This is a global phenomenon, and we are probably more proactive in terms of what's been done," Minister Creed.

He also reiterated comments by Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan who said on Friday that at this point in time closure of plants is not a recommendation that is being considered.

His comments come despite a serious escalation in the number of confirmed cases in Irish meat plants in recent weeks with multiple plants understood to have hundreds of employees infected with Covid-19.

Health chiefs are concerned at how at a number of Covid-19 clusters have emerged at major factories despite the facilities having introduced precautionary temperature checks each morning in a bid to protect their large workforces and operations.

Some of the plants have had temperature screening in place since mid March.

These temperature checks were introduced in a bid to identify any worker displaying the symptoms of the new coronavirus - including a high temperature.

Once having displayed a high temperature, the worker would be asked to self-isolate for 14 days as a precautionary measure to protect other staff.

However, a number of such facilities including several meat plants found themselves dealing with a large number of Covid-19 cases despite such extensive precautionary testing regimes - a development which has baffled public health experts.

While it was initially thought the viral source may have been asymptomatic patients, contact tracing has now unearthed a suggestion that at least one worker had been taking paracetamol or ibuprofen in the days before they fell ill and tested positive for Covid-19.

It was suggested that the worker, and possibly a number of his friends, routinely took such products in the morning due to a combination of heavy drinking lifestyles as well as aches and pains associated with the physical demands of their work.

All the workers involved had been attending the plant at which they were employed on a daily basis before testing positive for the virus.

However, none displayed signs of a high temperature during the screening process - raising fears the paracetamol or ibuprofen may have inadvertently masked their temperature during the scanning procedure.

One worker, who is based in south, later had to be removed to hospital by paramedics from his flat after being ill for several days.

There is no suggestion that masking the temperature was deliberate, but a side-effect of taking painkillers which are commonly used for headaches and joint pain.

The investigation now aims to clarify just how many of those who tested positive may have been taking such products which are renowned for lowering temperature and easing joint pain.

"The issue arose as part of the contact tracing and public health review process. One person mentioned that a worker was a regular user of paracetamol," a contact tracing centre source confirmed.

"The person had also gone through screening on a number of occasions without displaying any sign of a high temperature."

Health chiefs are concerned with ensuring the maximum accuracy of such thermal scanning procedures given how critical they will be as Ireland eases pandemic restrictions and attempts to kick-start the economy.

If the paracetamol/ibuprofen link is verified, employers may now have to query workers if they are using such products during the screening process.

It also emerged that gardaí were forced to intervene on two occasions - in the south and in the west - when employees of major factories did not adhere to strict social-distancing measures.

In one case, this involved a noisy house party being staged a short distance from a town off-license.

In the second case, management at the plant where the staff worked had to be notified by gardaí of their social distancing concerns which included car sharing and workers routinely staying outside their own residences.

Employers have also been urged to take into account that English is not the primary language for some employees with a need for detailed instructions on Covid-19 controls and restrictions in the languages of all nationalities employed at premises.