A Chinese factory owned by South Korean semiconductor giant SK Hynix Inc yesterday halted operations after a plant worker was found to have an asymptomatic infection of COVID-19, Xinhua news agency reported.
The South Korean worker based at the plant in Chongqing since February had departed on Thursday for South Korea, Xinhua reported.
He was tested at Incheon Airport in Seoul and confirmed positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, it reported.
Photo: Ahn Young-joon, AP
All factory staff as well as staff and recent guests at the hotel where the worker lived have been isolated and given nucleic acid tests, the agency said.
“We’re cooperating with the local government on their containment efforts, and at the same time trying to resume production as soon as possible,” a spokesman at SK Hynix said.
He declined to comment on the impact the suspension would have.
SK Hynix, the world’s No. 2 memorychip maker, employs about 2,700 workers in the Chongqing facility, including some South Koreans.
The city has carried out nucleic acid tests on 3,283 people, with 2,674 found negative, Xinhua said.
Almost 500 environmental samples had also been collected, and all found negative.
China reported 11 new COVID-19 cases in the mainland on Saturday, compared with six cases a day earlier, the Chinese National Health Commission said yesterday, adding that all of the new infections were imported cases.
There were no new deaths.
China also reported 10 new asymptomatic patients, compared with four a day earlier.
As of Saturday, mainland China had a total of 86,512 confirmed cases, it said, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
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