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The number of cases shown of coronavirus at an engineering plant in Sunderland has doubled from 14 to 27.
Unipres, which owns a plant in Washington, Sunderland, showed that there were 27 cases of Covid-19 on site, but that the company adheres to all government protocols.
Last week, ChronicleLive reported that 14 workers at the plant tested positive for the virus, however general manager Gary Graham showed that there were now 27 positive cases.
The company said it was working “incredibly hard” to ensure an environment for its workforce and added that the increase in the number of instances reflected situations in the rest of the UK and the Northeast.
Of the 27 people, 17 are expected to return to the plant until the end of this week.
Mr Graham said: “Like all the big corporations in the country, we paint incredibly hard to ensure a safe environment for our pictorial strength.
“But we are a mirror image of the rest of the UK and the Northeast: the scenario is transforming daily, so we are reacting as proactively as possible to those adjustments to ensure the protection of our workforce. “
“Since last week, we have noticed positive cases of Covid increasing to 27.
“However, we expect 17 of them to return to work until the end of the week, after completing their mandatory recovery periods. “
The car portion company, which was originally formed as a joint venture between Nissan and some other Japanese company before being independent in the 1990s, employs another 1,000 people at Wearside.
It re-completed production in May and ensured that conditioning and protection protocols were of “paramount importance”.