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Six employees of a Newcastle plant that produces medicines for the NHS have been sent home after being tested positive for coronavirus.
Accord Healthcare, which employs more than 350 people, said that part of a dozen had contracted the virus and now ingested itself.
The pharmaceutical company creates medicines and tablets for the health industry, adding the NHS, on its 22 acres in Fawdon.
Accord Healthcare said that 1. 7% of its workforce was recently absent due to Covid-19, and that most other people who tested positive were known through their internal tests after no symptoms.
Keith Daniels, Accord’s associate vice president of operations, said: “We employ more than 350 people at Accord in Newcastle, most of our on-site staff are critical staff who produce essential medicines for the NHS.
“As a key NHS provider, we have proactively developed several projects for our workforce since February, adding twice-weekly antigenic testing, increased social esttachment, and normal Covid communications that exceed Public Health England, Newcastle Public Health, and Health and Health Executive rules.
“Our tests paint in parallel with a structured reporting formula with isolation, tracking and cleaning procedures if necessary.
<< Lately we have 1. 7% of our workforce absent due to Covid, most of which have been known through our internal testing. Since most of these cases are asymptomatic, they would not have been known as positive for Covid-19 without this. proactive measure.
“As a guilty employer, we believe that our exclusive testing program is an effective way to ensure the protection of our workers and their families, which, of course, temporarily identifies positive cases.
“While this would possibly provide a higher proportion of undetected positive cases on a regular basis, it also provides a very comprehensive and safe technique through Covid to ensure the protection of our workers and their families while manufacturing and delivering medicines to those in need. .
Accord took over Fawdon in 2015 after the pharmaceutical company Sanofi closed the plant and moved to France.
It now produces about 110 million tablets per month for use in situations such as Alzheimer’s disease and also for use in chemotherapy.