What you need to know
- Samsung has confirmed a Coronavirus case at its phone factory complex in Gumi, South Korea.
- The company has decided to shut down the entire facility until Monday morning.
- Samsung's foldable Galaxy Z Flip and Galaxy Fold smartphones are manufactured at the Gumi plant.
Samsung, the world's largest smartphone vendor, has confirmed a coronavirus case at its phone factory in Gumi, South Korea. As per Reuters, the entire facility will remain shut until Monday morning. The company has also decided to close down the floor where the infected employee worked until February 25.
Samsung said in a news release:
The company has placed colleagues who came in contact with the infected employee in self-quarantine and taken steps to have them tested for possible infection
Samsung currently makes most of its Galaxy smartphones at its facilities in Vietnam and India. The company's Gumi plant only produces a small number of high-end phones for the domestic market, along with the foldable Galaxy Z Flip and Galaxy Fold. So while the shutdown will have minimal impact on the supply of the company's traditional high-end phones, the temporary production halt could make it more difficult for Samsung to meet the high demand for the Galaxy Z Flip. Samsung's chip and display factories in other parts of the country, however, aren't affected.
Gumi is fairly close to Daegu, which happens to be South Korea's coronavirus epicenter. A total of 763 coronavirus have been reported in the country so far, making it the second most affected country by the COVID-19 outbreak.
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