Contract laptop maker Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) is stepping up COVID-19 prevention measures after an employee at one of its subsidiaries contracted the novel coronavirus in the first case of community transmission in Taiwan in 253 days.
The woman was infected by case No. 765, an EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) pilot from New Zealand.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we are going back to stricter prevention measures like we had at the start of the year,” Quanta spokesman Elton Yang (楊俊烈) said yesterday.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
Yang said that the female employee, who is the 771st documented case in Taiwan, is not a direct Quanta employee, but worked for a “subsidiary of a subsidiary.”
Quanta Storage Inc (廣明光電), which is headquartered across the road from the parent company in Taoyuan, said that the woman is an employee of one of its subsidiaries, without naming the company.
The cafeteria and gyms at Quanta have been closed, and meetings have been moved back online, Yang said.
“As soon as we heard the news, we were in touch with the authorities and began disinfecting the whole company,” Yang said.
“Temperature checks and masks are now strictly enforced, and non-company personnel are strictly controlled on premises,” he said.
Those who have had contact with the infected employee would be required to comply with prevention measures according to the degree of exposure.
According to the Central Epidemic Control Center, case No. 771 had contact with 167 people, 13 of whom were ordered to quarantine, while the rest were asked to self-monitor for symptoms.
All would be tested for COVID-19, the center said.
Quanta stock dipped 1.51 percent yesterday to NT$78.3 at the close of trading in Taipei.
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