Crisp manufacturer Walkers has confirmed that 28 of its employees at a factory in Leicester have tested positive for coronavirus.

Walkers, which employs 1,400 people across the site in the Beaumont Leys area of the city, said it had seen a ‘steady increase’ in the number of confirmed cases during June.

The firm claimed the virus did not break out in the factory, according to its track and trace procedure. It added that the spike in cases ‘coincides with the roll-out and uptake of testing in Leicester’.

On Monday night, Leicester became the first area in the UK to be locked down locally following a surge in cases over the last two weeks.

A Walkers spokesperson said: ‘We have shared our data and analysis with the health authorities and they support the view that our situation reflects transmission in the community and we do not have a transmission issue on site.

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‘In light of the recent increase in cases in Leicester, we have been proactively reinforcing the importance of continued vigilance on site.’

The company added employees with a confirmed or suspected case of Covid-19 were self-isolating on full pay.

It comes after several workers tested positive for the virus at a factory which supplies McVities in South Wigston, Leicester.

An employee said five workers at the at the Pladis factory had caught the virus and were self-isolating.

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