Fiat Chrysler Automobiles confirmed on Thursday that an employee had tested positive for COVID-19 at its Kokomo, Indiana transmission plant.
Despite that, the automaker said the location will remain open. According to FCA, the employee is receiving medical care and the people he may have come into direct contact with have been quarantined at their homes – including his immediate co-workers.
In a statement seen by Reuters, the automaker talked about “deploying additional sanitization measures across the entire facility, re-timing break times to avoid crowding and deploying social spacing” at its Kokomo, Indiana facility. FCA said it is also canceling all in-person meetings unless “business critical”, using video conferencing instead.
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Ford said its North American plants remain unaffected, while General Motors said it has not had any cases in its plants in the region yet. A GM spokesman said the automaker’s response to a positive test would depend on the situation.
Analysts’ forecasts are beginning to include a U.S. auto sales slowdown, but earlier this week industry executives said the pandemic had yet to affect demand or factory production. However, if more U.S. auto workers test positive for the new coronavirus, it could lead to significant supply disruptions.
Many auto companies have canceled non-essential travel as the SARS-CoV-2 virus spreads across North America. The virus causes COVID-19, a highly contagious respiratory illness. The number of coronavirus cases in the United States has grown to more than 1,300, with 38 deaths, according to Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University.
Update: An earlier version of this story featured old press photos from FCA of people working at the Kokomo assembly plant and who were obviously not related in any way to the coronavirus outbreak. To avoid any misapprehensions, we have removed and replaced them with other images from FCA factories.
