Motorola Inc, the world's second-biggest maker of cellphones, closed a Singapore plant temporarily after a night-shift worker fell ill with the respiratory disease that's killed more than 50 people worldwide.
The temporary closure comes as governments and companies begin to ban employees from traveling to Hong Kong, China, Vietnam and Singapore, the most infected areas. People from affected places face health questions when traveling overseas.
Hong Kong and Singapore have closed schools and started quarantine measures aimed at halting the spread of the previously unknown viral illness, which the World Health Organization says has infected more than 1,400 people in 15 countries.
"We are taking as much precaution as we can short of asking people to work from home," said Sheila Ng, chief financial officer at GES International Ltd, which makes personal computers and cash registers for customers such as NCR Corp and International Business Machines Corp.
The company won't let workers travel to Hong Kong, Vietnam and the southern Chinese province of Guangdong and employees are encouraged to conduct business by phone, not in person, Ng said.
Many US customers won't come to Singapore because they're concerned about terrorism as well as the disease, she said.
"The combination of [the] two certainly isn't helping," Ng said.
"We're all feeling a bit under siege. In China, the news isn't getting out. Nobody knows what to expect."
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