PepsiCo Plant in Beijing, That Produces Lays Chips, Temporarily Shut as 8 Workers Test COVID-19 Positive: Chinese Media
The closure of PepsiCo plant comes amid a "second wave" of coronavirus pandemic in China, with Beijing recording nearly 300 new cases over the past week. The numbers are expected to exponentially rise, and has compelled the authorities to order the closure of schools and colleges.
Beijing, June 21: A PepsiCo plant in the China's capital that mainly produced Lays chips was temporarily shut down as eight workers tested positive for COVID-19, the company officials were reported as saying on Sunday by the state-run Chinese media. The manufacturing site is located in Ciwei road in Daxing district of Beijing region.
The closure of PepsiCo plant comes amid a "second wave" of coronavirus pandemic in China, with Beijing recording nearly 300 new cases over the past week. The numbers are expected to exponentially rise, and has compelled the authorities to order the closure of schools and colleges.
Among the eight PepsiCo employees who tested positive, two were confirmed to have visited the Xinfadi Market, which is considered as centre of the latest outbreak of COVID-19 in the city.
Fan Zhimin, from the publicity department of PepsiCo in China, was reported as saying by Global Times - the semi-official mouthpiece of Chinese government - that the first positive case was detected on June 15.
Shut Production Plant Mainly Produces Lays Chips: Global Times
After the first case was confirmed, all outbound transportation was suspended, stocks were sealed and production work immediately halted, Zhimin said at the anti-epidemic press conference called by the Chinese government earlier today.
A total of 480 workers were sent to centralised quarantine centres on June 20, and 87 of their close contacts were also identified and quarantined at designated facilities, the officials said. Large-scale sanitisation was also undertaken at the PepsiCo plant.
China, earlier this year, witnessed a lockdown that stretched for around eight weeks in different parts of the country. Despite being the epicentre of COVID-19 outbreak, the country succeeded in largely overcoming the pandemic and restarting nearly all economic sectors by mid-April.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 21, 2020 05:04 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).