Hundreds of Nissan staff from its Sunderland plant self-isolating following contact with Covid-19 cases

The car marker has been pushed to make changes to how the factory is run due to the high numbers of employees told to stay at home due to the virus.

Today, Thursday, July 15, a Nissan spokesman said: “Production in certain areas of the plant has been adjusted as we manage a number of staff being required to self-isolate following close contact with Covid-19.

“The wellbeing of our team is our number one priority and we remain confident in the rigorous safety controls we have on site.”

It has been reported the Delta variant is responsible, causing businesses across the country difficulties in staffing workplaces.

Last month, Nissan used the furlough scheme for hundreds of its workers after positive cases at the factory, leading to the suspension of production on parts of both its lines.

At that point, it said it was only its night shift which was affected, with fewer than 50 cases, with most self-isolating as a precaution.

It was the latest in a series of disruptions for the site due to coronavirus.

The issues come as case figures across the region continue to rise, with the number of new cases reported yesterday standing at 374 in Sunderland alone.

South Tyneside continues to record the highest figures in England, with its latest case figure standing at 226 as of yesterday.

South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust confirmed it was halting visiting on its adult inpatient wards as it saw the number of people it was treating for Covid rising from two to 80 in the space of a month.

Meanwhile, the Government is pushing on with the further easing of lockdown in Step 4 of the roadmap.

This will see self-isolation rules change from Monday, August 16, which mean double jabbed people and under 18s will no longer need to self-isolate if they are identified as a close contact of someone with the virus.

They will still be advised to take a PCR test to detect the illness and variants of concern, with anyone who tests positive following the PCR test to still be legally required to self-isolate, irrespective of their vaccination status.

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