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A CORONAVIRUS outbreak has hit a Royal Mail delivery office.
Postal staff at the sorting office in Chester, Cheshire, have tested positive – with seven confirmed cases in the last week.
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The office remains open, and Chester bosses say a deep clean has taken place in light of the outbreak.
Strict social distancing measures also remain in place – including just one staff member per delivery vehicle.
A Royal Mail spokesperson told the Sun Online: “Royal Mail takes the health and safety of its colleagues, its customers and the local communities in which we operate very seriously.
“In the last week, seven colleagues at our Chester Delivery Office tested positive for coronavirus.
“They are now at home recuperating and we wish them a speedy recovery.
“During this time, we have carried out three full, enhanced cleans of the building as a precautionary measure.”
All staff have been offered tests and anyone who tests negative, who does not display symptoms, is continuing to work as normal – in line with Government guidance.
The spokesperson added: “We have put in place a range of preventive measures to protect both our customers and our colleagues.
“We were the first UK company to put in place social-distancing measures in relation to parcel delivery. We pioneered contact-free delivery.
“We are temporarily not handing over our hand-held devices to customers to capture signatures.
“As well as encouraging good hand hygiene, standard ways of working have been revised to ensure that colleagues stay two metres apart at all times.
“All staff have been briefed about the social distancing measures jointly agreed by local management and the Communication Workers Union.
“This has been supplemented with visible reminders such as posters and one-way floor markings, and we have moved to a one person per van delivery model.”
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Royal Mail is not the only firm to be hit by an outbreak.
More than 450 workers tested positive for coronavirus at two North Wales meat factories last month.
Public Health Wales reported 216 employees at 2 Sisters on Anglesey and 237 at Rowan Foods in Wrexham had contracted Covid-19.
And Walkers Crisps confirmed 28 positive coronavirus cases in its factory in Leicester earlier this week.
The firm, which employs 1,400 people across the site, said it had seen a “steady increase” in cases during June.
But it claimed its track and trace procedure indicated the transmission was “not in our factory”.
The company claims the rise in cases “coincides with the roll-out and uptake of testing” across the city.
Leicester became the first UK city to go back into lockdown on Monday.
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Ministers are considering testing whole towns and cities for coronavirus to stop hotspots blowing up into a national outbreak.
Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said social distancing should keep Covid-19 under control but warned: “We will see local outbreaks.”
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