A CORONAVIRUS outbreak has been declared at one of South Wales' major employers.

A total of 352 cases of Covid-19 have been identified among workers at the DVLA office in Swansea, including 62 confirmed cases at its contact centre in Swansea Vale, since December 1.

Testing facilities have now been deployed by Swansea University Health Board to the site from Monday until Wednesday for the entire workforce to be tested.

Sion Lingard, consultant in health protection for Public Health Wales, said: “Public Health Wales can confirm that NHS Test Trace Protect has been responding to 62 confirmed cases of coronavirus in employees at the DVLA Contact Centre in Swansea Vale since the 1 December.

MORE NEWS:

“We are all working in close collaboration with our partner agencies and our priority is to reduce the number of cases in this workforce.

“We would like to encourage all staff at the contact centre to take up the offer of testing available on the site until Wednesday December 23.

“Finding cases early is key to reducing transmission and risks to those around you. But workers in any workplace may be at risk from infection in social or household settings.”

Figures calculated by the PA news agency based on data published on the Public Health Wales Covid-19 surveillance dashboard show for the seven days to December 17 in Swansea, 747.0 new cases per 100,000 people.