South Korean factories supplying Samsung and Apple temporarily close down after five employees are found to have coronavirus
- Factories making components for Samsung and Apple mobile phones closed
- Samsung Electronics and LG Innotek temporarily shut factories in South Korea
- Total of five employees at both factories have tested positive for the coronavirus
- Both sites are near Daegu where most South Korean virus cases were confirmed
Factories supplying Samsung and Apple have temporarily closed down due to the coronavirus outbreak in South Korea after a total of five workers were found to have the disease.
Samsung Electronics and LG Innotek have shut their factories in South Korea after employees tested positive for the coronavirus, the companies said.
Samsung Electronics initially suspended operations at its domestic smartphone plant in Gumi near Daegu on Saturday for the second time in a week, after a third employee tested positive for the virus.
Today the company confirmed a fourth case of coronavirus infection among its workforce.
Meanwhile, LG Innoteck, which supplies camera modules for Apple Inc’s iPhones, shut down its factory in Gumi yesterday after one of its workers was confirmed to have contracted the virus, a company official said.
The Samsung Electronics Co. office in Seoul, South Korea. The tech giant’s factory 200 miles away in Gumi near Daegu had to temporarily close for disinfection work after four employees were found to have coronavirus
Samsung’s mobile device factory was closed for disinfection work while the floor where the infected employees worked will reopen on Tuesday afternoon, a company statement said.
The employee tested positive for the virus on Saturday, Samsung said, adding that it will implement ‘all necessary measures’ to prevent the spread of the virus.
The Gumi line, which was closed temporarily last month after an earlier case was discovered, makes Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip and Galaxy S20 premium phones, though its production accounts for a small portion of the company’s entire smartphone output.
The LG Innoteck plant will also be closed on Monday for disinfection, the official said.
Gumi – around 210 miles (200 kilometres) southeast of the capital Seoul – is close to Daegu, where most of the South Korean virus cases have been confirmed.
LG Innoteck, which supplies camera modules for Apple Inc’s iPhones, shut down its factory in Gumi on Sunday after one of its workers was confirmed to have contracted the virus. Pictured is the Apple branch office in Basel, Switzerland
South Korean tech giant, Samsung, also cancelled a ground-breaking ceremony for its new $220 million research and development centre in Vietnam due to travel restrictions relating to the virus.
Auto giant Hyundai Motor also stopped operations at one of its Ulsan plants after an employee tested positive for the coronavirus.
Concerts by K-pop superstars BTS and the World Team Table Tennis Championships were among cancelled events, while sports leagues have modified their seasons to contain the virus.
K-pop star CHUNG HA was placed in self-quarantine when a member of her staff tested positive after visiting Italy last month, Yonhap news agency reported. The singer tested negative.
South Korea has suffered more than 4,300 cases and seen 26 deaths so far from the outbreak that began in China in December.
More than half of South Korea’s cases have been linked to the Shincheonji church in Daegu and numbers are expected to rise further as 260,000 people associated with the cult are tested for the virus.
Worldwide there have been more than 89,000 cases and over 3,000 deaths from the virus.