'Safe to eat': Dozens of COVID-19 cases linked to Cedar Meats in Melbourne's west
An abattoir at the centre of a coronavirus outbreak involving 34 confirmed cases in Melbourne's west says the meat processed at its facility is safe for customers to eat.
On Monday, 19 new cases were linked to Cedar Meats in Brooklyn, which had already been connected to 15 infections announced over the weekend.
Cedar Meats in Brooklyn.Credit:Simon Schluter
It is one of the largest clusters of COVID-19 in Victoria, which reported a total of 1406 cases as of Monday — a single-day increase of 22.
The Victorian government had refused to name the meat processing facility, declaring the site did not pose a public health risk. In a briefing on Sunday, Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said it was not a case of double standards that a school with a single case of coronavirus was identified.
Cedar Meats general manager Tony Kairouz confirmed the outbreak in a statement released on Monday morning.
"The welfare and safety of our staff, visitors, suppliers and customers is our highest priority," he said.
"All workers are self-quarantining and we are working closely with the Victorian health authorities.
"All meat processed at our facilities is processed in accordance with Australian standards for food safety and our customers can be confident that the meat processed at our facilities is safe to eat."
The outbreak was discovered when a worker went to Sunshine Hospital for a workplace injury and took a COVID-19 test.
The facility, which is currently closed, employs around 350 people.
A patient who underwent emergency surgery at Sunshine Hospital on April 23 tested positive to coronavirus, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed on Friday.
The incident sidelined two dozen staff who were potentially exposed to the virus. None of the staff have tested positive to the virus so far, the department said.
Victorian Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton said the facility had gone into shutdown, though it needed minimum staffing on site to ensure animal welfare.
"Meatworks are particularly vulnerable, we've seen from the US extremely large outbreaks in meatworks," he said.
"In some ways because they are forced to work closer than some other workplaces."
Over 4900 workers at meat processing facilities in the United States have tested positive to the virus, according to the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr Sutton defended the decision not to name the business when the outbreak was first revealed on Saturday, despite revealing the location of other places where people had tested positive.
"It has always been the case that if we need people in the community to understand where they might have been exposed to a cluster or outbreak of cases that we identify those sites," he said.
"If we are following up everyone, we have the names of contacts of everyone in the site, and we're not concerned about the general community being exposed then there's no specific public health reason to name those places."
The business, which exports overseas, was started by the Kairouz family in the 1980s. Premier Daniel Andrews said the owners were not related to Marlene Kairouz, the Minister for Consumer Affairs.
"It is my understanding that there is no connection apart from the family name," he said.