MORE than two hundred workers at Hazeldenes Chickens have been vaccinated as part of Bendigo Health\u2019s latest outreach program.<\/p>\n
Staff from BH visited workers at the poultry proccing facility at Lockwood, as well as pork producer KR Castlemaine to administer vaccines last week.<\/p>\n
Chair of Bendigo Health Bob Cameron said meat production sites have been identified as a high-risk environment for the spread of coronavirus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe meat industry we know, because it\u2019s a damp environment, there\u2019s a lot of people that work in very close proximity, they can be higher risk sites,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we want to do is see those sites vaccinated so those industries can keep working.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important if we want to have meat but it\u2019s also important for all of those jobs and what those industries do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would like to see over 2000 people vaccinated. It\u2019s a big ask but we know that we have to come here because so many of the workers here find it difficult to get into town.\u201d<\/p>\n
In October last year, a coronavirus outbreak affected Hazeldenes, forcing the Lockwood site to close.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year we saw coronavirus spread in many meat works and we know that because people are working in close proximity and in a damper environment that coronavirus spreads much quicker so it\u2019s really important that these industries are vaccinated,\u201d Mr Cameron said.<\/p>\n
Director John Hazeldene said he hopes the business is never in that position again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had 800,000 chickens that were growing every week and we could process them because it\u2019s automated but we had no workers to pack them, so we wasted so many birds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the worst thing I\u2019ve ever been through in business.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vaccination is vitally important and if that gets us through and stops us ever having to go through any lockdowns again, we\u2019d certainly be encouraging everyone to get the vaccination.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Hazledene said he hopes to see most of the workers at the site vaccinated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ll get a fairly good uptake; I think most of our workers are pretty common sense and they realise that they don\u2019t want to go through what we went through last year,\u201d he said<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t make it compulsory but we\u2019re certainly encouraging them to get the jab.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the outbreak, workers at Hazeldenes have been wearing masks and working in segregated areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s just a great thing to do, we\u2019ve got bubbles basically, we try to keep areas separate from others, we\u2019re trying to be as safe as we can be,\u201d Mr Hazledene said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MORE than two hundred workers at Hazeldenes Chickens have been vaccinated as part of Bendigo Health\u2019s latest outreach program. Staff from BH visited workers at the poultry proccing facility at Lockwood, as well as pork producer KR Castlemaine to administer vaccines last week. Chair of Bendigo Health Bob Cameron said meat production sites have been […]<\/p>\n