THREE of York’s biggest employers say they are coping with staff going off sick with Covid and having to self isolate.

Nestle, Aviva and Portakabin, which between them have many thousands of employees, say they have continued to produce goods and serve customers, despite being affected by the city’s soaring coronavirus rates.

Confectionery giant Nestle, which has a factory, offices and a research and development centre in Haxby Road, said it had seen an increase in cases, in line with what was being seen in York generally, ‘but it hasn’t had an impact on our operations to date'.

A spokeswoman said: “Protecting and supporting our people remains our top priority and we continue to have Covid-secure measures in place across all operations.”

Insurance giant Aviva, with offices in the city centre and at Monks Cross, said staff safety and wellbeing continued to be its priority and most were working remotely, but for a very small number of critical workers who were not, its offices remained open and Covid secure.

“We have continued to serve our customers throughout the pandemic and have adapted to the situation by quickly equipping our teams to work from home, prioritising customer service teams and offering flexibility to our people so they are able to balance their needs at home with work,” said a spokeswoman.

“Our people have stepped up and teams working flexibly across different locations have adjusted to colleagues who have been sick or caring for family, so that we can continue to serve our customers.”

Portakabin, which has a factory in Huntington, said colleagues had contracted Covid-19 but thankfully none had become significantly ill.

A spokeswoman said Portakabin had remained open and operational throughout the pandemic, working closely with Government and the NHS, providing a variety of buildings.

“With strict Standard Operating Procedures in place and our working environments classed as ‘Covid-19 Secure’, we have been doing everything we can to protect our workforce from this invisible threat.”