THERE are now 166 confirmed coronavirus cases associated with the outbreak at Rowan Foods in Wrexham.

At today's Welsh Government briefing, First Minister Mark Drakeford said that the number of people testing positive at the Wrexham plant had risen to 166. More than 1,000 people have been tested.

This is an increase of 60 cases associated with the Wrexham Industrial Estate site from the 106 announced by Finance Minister Rebecca Evans at yesterday’s daily briefing

The Rowan Foods plant remains operation, Mr Drakeford added.

Mr Drakeford added that 204 people had tested positive at the 2 Sisters plant in Llangefni. There, more than 500 tests have been carried out.

Outbreaks at meat processing plants in Wales are continuting to be monitored.

"The latest information I have seen says there are 204 cases at the 2 Sisters plant, 166 cases at the Rowan Foods plant in Wrexham and 33 cases at the Merthyr Tydfil plant.

"Updated guidance for this sector will be published later today.

"A rapid review will also be carried out into the whole sector.

"These outbreaks are a sobering reminder that coronavirus has not gone away."

The First Minister said he has spoken to Unite yesterday about the outbreak at Rowan Foods and that the Health and Safety Executive was also at the plant yesterday.

He said: "I made it clear that the outbreak control team must take the views of union members at that factory seriously because if you want to understand what is happening on the factory floor then the representatives of the workers who are there need to be heard."

Today, Dr Robin Howe, incident director for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said: "Testing of the workforce associated with an outbreak of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the Wrexham area is continuing.

"We are in the process of combining information to identify the full scope of the ongoing testing process and total number of positive cases.

"To date a total of 166 cases have been identified, an increase of 69 cases reported in the past 24 hours.

"The identification of additional cases does not mean that the infection is increasing.

"However, it also reminds us that COVID-19 has not gone away and remains in the community.

"Rapid contact tracing also continues, and as expected, is identifying additional cases associated with the workforce.

"There is no evidence that the employer is the source of the infection, but we continue to review the situation and work with our multi-agency partners, the employer, their workforce and wider community to bring this outbreak to a swift conclusion."