The PSA Group will evacuate its staff and their families from the Wuhan area in China, which is at the very center of the Coronavirus outbreak.
The French carmaker said that 38 individuals would be evacuated and repatriated, with the full collaboration of the Chinese authorities and the French general consulate. The evacuees will momentarily remain quarantined in Changsha before finally traveling back home.
Furthermore, PSA will also take measures alongside Dongfeng so as to take care of their joint venture’s Chinese employees.
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French companies have long been big investors in Wuhan, which features historical ties with France. There are the three PSA factories operated with Dongfeng Motors, plus other plants within the city operated by Renault and French suppliers Valeo and Faurecia.
Last week, a Renault spokesman told Autonews Europe that its Wuhan factory was closed for the Chinese New Year, but that the French brand was still analyzing the situation as far as its on-location personnel was concerned.
For those who aren’t familiar with this crisis, at the end of December, the World Health Organization was alerted to several cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, a strain that did not match any other known virus, which is always a major concern seen as how it becomes impossible to anticipate how it will affect people.
The new virus was eventually identified as a Coronavirus – a family of viruses that include the common cold, but also SARS and MERS. Efforts to contain the spread have so far proven less than effective, as confirmed Coronavirus cases began popping up in the U.S., Canada, Australia, France and multiple Asian countries.
