SK Hynix faced with extended quarantine period in China
Wuhan and Chongqing extends isolation period from 2 weeks to 3 for visitors Samsung's Xi'an plant yet to be effected
Employees of SK Hynix dispatched to China had their quarantine period extended from two weeks to three, TheElec has learned.
This is due to the cities of Wuhan and Chongqing, where the company has factories, extending the quarantine period to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
A SK Hynix spokesperson said China has enforced the longer quarantine period from surges in the virus outbreak abroad.
They stressed that the measure didn’t only effect the company but all visitors to Wuhan and Chongqing. They also stressed that the company had sufficient manpower at China and the measure won’t impact semiconductor production.
Meanwhile, the city of Xi’an, where Samsung Electronics has a chip factory, it yet to enforce a similar extension in the quarantine period.
SK Hynix had previously suspended production at its factory in Chongqing in November last year from orders of the government there.
An employee there was found positive for the virus in a first checkup but later was found to be negative in the follow up diagnosis. Chinese authorities have asked SK Hynix to provide a written document vouching the fact that the employee didn’t contract the virus signed by a senior South Korean health official, a person familiar with the matter said. SK Hynix provided such documentation, providing a signed diagnosis by the head of the public health center of the city of Cheongju in South Korea.
At the time, some 2,700 employees working at the factory at Chongqing were held up for two days. They were denied shower and other basic rights at the time, the person said. There was a pregnant employee among them. They were only allowed freedom after all of them were tested negative for COVID-19.
The Chinese government’s one-way measures have limited work and business operations a lot, the person added.
Another person familiar with the matter said small companies found the extended quarantine period difficult to deal with. Businesses with operations in China were watching the situation closely as there was a resurgence of cases in China as well, they added.