A total of 292 people have tested positive for Covid-19 after an outbreak at a factory which supplies M&S with Sandwiches.

The Greencore factory, in Northampton announced the news that nearly 300 members of staff had tested positive for the virus today.

The company said some of its staff are self-isolating after they proactively tested workers as a result of a rise in cases in the town.

The company is known to supply sandwiches to M&S but products are not believed to put the public at risk of contracting the virus.

Head of emergencies programme at the World Health Organisation Mike Ryan told a briefing in Geneva: “People should not fear food, or food packaging or processing or delivery of food.

“There is no evidence that food or the food chain is participating in transmission of this virus. And people should feel comfortable and safe.”

A spokeswoman for Northamptonshire County Council said 79 people returned positive NHS tests and a further 213 tested positive through Greencore’s private testing.

In a statement, Greencore said: “As a result of the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the Northampton area, we took the decision to start proactively testing all of the colleagues at our Northampton site.

“We can confirm that a number of colleagues have tested positive for the virus and are now self-isolating.

“We are liaising closely with PHE East Midlands, Northamptonshire County Council and Northampton Borough Council, who are fully supportive of the controls that we have on site.”

The company added: “In each case we have immediately conducted contact tracing and instructed potentially affected colleagues to self-isolate.

“All of Greencore’s sites have wide-ranging social distancing measures, stringent hygiene procedures and regular temperature checking in place, and we are doing everything that we can to keep our people safe.

“As ever, the health and wellbeing of our colleagues is our number one priority.”