SHARING information around Covid outbreaks could be the solution to preventing rumour and speculation.

That’s the view of Liberal Democrats in Cleckheaton who received no formal notification that a local meat factory had suffered an outbreak.

The factory was quickly identified as Kober Ltd, at Hunsworth near Cleckheaton, which supplies bacon to Asda.

This week Kirklees Council revealed that 165 people had tested positive for the virus at the site.

Local Lib Dems – along with MPs Tracy Brabin and Barry Sheerman – were among those who were not kept informed of the issues at Kober.

They’ve urged senior staff at Kirklees Council to reassess how the public are informed about outbreaks – and to learn from other authorities who have communicated better.

Lib Dem group leader Clr John Lawson, who represents Cleckheaton with ward colleagues Kath Pinnock and Andrew Pinnock, said: ““The confirmed numbers in the Kober outbreak in our ward seem to be in line with other similar outbreaks in Wales.

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“The [council’s] Public Health Team and the company have worked well together to get control of the outbreak and both should be commended for their hard work.

“I think we now have an opportunity to reassess how and when we inform the public of outbreaks.

“We are at the beginning of this new way of working and should be looking at sharing experience among our neighbouring authorities and learning from them.”

He added: “While each case will be different, the Royal Mail outbreak in Barnsley this week showed how the public can be informed without hindering the vital work that must be done.

“The information doesn’t have to be massively detailed for people to know that they need to concentrate on doing the basics to keep themselves safe and that it’s being handled properly.

“I’m working with council to find ways of sharing information at an appropriate level of detail and scope.

“As we have seen rumour and speculation can be an enormous distraction to these efforts, this is the way we keep them to a minimum.”

Kirklees Council was aware of the outbreak for a week before it was announced by Health Secretary Matt Hancock at a daily Government press briefing.

However the council is sticking to its policy of not identifying locations when outbreaks occur.

It said disclosing a location would not help combat the spread of infection and could actually have a negative impact on how the authority fights the virus.