S. Korean Carmaker Hyundai Halts Work At Plant After Worker Contracts COVID-19 - Reports

South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor Company has stopped production at one of its domestic plants after a worker was confirmed to be carrying the coronavirus disease, officially called COVID-19, the country's Yonhap News Agency reported on Friday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th February, 2020) South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor Company has stopped production at one of its domestic plants after a worker was confirmed to be carrying the coronavirus disease, officially called COVID-19, the country's Yonhap News Agency reported on Friday.

Production has been halted at Hyundai's No. 2 plant in the southeastern city of Ulsan, and an emergency meeting was called between the plant's management and the worker's union to decide on additional measures, the agency reported.

"The infected worker belongs to the 300-member paint shop of the No. 2 plant. The company is checking with whom the worker has come in contact with in the plant," a union spokesman said, as quoted by the agency.

Hyundai Motor Company's stocks fell as much as 5.4 percent on the back of the news, the agency reported, in the latest blow for the South Korean carmaker which has struggled since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak from a shortage of parts from China, the disease's epicenter.

On February 4, the company was forced to suspend operations at the No.

5 plant in Ulsan, and reduce production at the other four plants in the city, due to parts shortages. Hyundai's sister company Kia Motors was also forced to reduce output at its plants in the cities of Hwaseong and Gwangju.

South Korea has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases outside of China, and according to the agency, 256 new cases were confirmed on Friday, taking the overall total to above 2,000. The outbreak has been concentrated in the city of Daegu, and a total of 13 people have died from the disease in the Asian country.

COVID-19 originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late December and has so far infected more than 83,700 people, resulting in the deaths of over 2,850 people. Over a third of the people who have contracted the disease have since been cured, including more than 3,770 people over the last 24 hours.

In a press briefing on Thursday, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that over the past two days, the number of new cases reported outside of China has exceeded the number of new cases in China.