Virus-hit Cedar Meats will be fully operational from tomorrow
Cedar Meats will reopen for livestock processing from tomorrow after closing nearly a month ago. Meanwhile, there have been no new cases linked to the coronavirus outbreak in almost a week.
UPDATE: MELBOURNE abattoir Cedar Meats will reopen for livestock processing from tomorrow, after closing nearly a month ago in response to a coronavirus outbreak.
Cedar Meats general manager Tony Kairouz made the announcement in a statement this afternoon, saying he was “looking forward to having the Cedar family back together”.
“As a management team we have spent the last few weeks working closely with DHHS (Victorian Department of Health and Human Services) and WorkSafe to ensure that we are returning in the safest possible manner,” he said.
About 300 staff will return to work. Staff who have been medically cleared by DHHS to start work attended a return to work information session at the site today.
“DHHS has provided us with a list of all staff that are cleared to return to work,” Mr Kairouz said.
“Our aim is to provide a safe and healthy environment as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The control measures will be regularly updated to reflect changes resulting from Government announcements, directions of the Victorian chief health officer and best practices for the sector.”
It comes after the Brooklyn site reopened on Monday last week with 15-20 staff operating its cold storage facility.
At least 111 people associated with the abattoir have now tested positive for the virus. At least 67 of these were workers and 44 were external contacts.
There have been no new cases in the cluster since last Thursday.
The Weekly Times asked the department why staff were still testing positive to the virus last week when testing was made mandatory on Thursday, April 30 and the abattoir closed the next day. New cases are usually picked up within 14 days of close contact with another case.
A spokesman said: “We are continuing to monitor all potential links to the Cedar Meats outbreak. At this stage any new cases are more likely to be found in close contacts rather than employees at the site.”
There have been 1618 cases of coronavirus in Victoria.
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