Samsung Display has temporarily suspended a workshop at its display plant in northern Vietnam after one of its workers was confirmed to be postive with Covid-19, local media reported.

Authorities in the northern province of Bac Ninh have requested people working at the workshop to be quarantined.

Samsung Electronics is the largest single foreign investor in Vietnam. Photo: Samsung Vietnam

The move came after a 26-year-old worker of the Quality Control division at the Samsung Display factory in Bac Ninh province tested positive for the coronavirus on April 12, according to an announcement by Vietnam’s health ministry.

The worker is from Ha Loi, a village of more than 11,000 residents on the outskirts of Hanoi which is currently put under lockdown for two weeks. He is the 262th Covid-19 patient in Vietnam and has isolated himself at home since April 7. On March 27, he made contact with Patient No.254 who is his uncle, and experienced dry cough and developed a fever four days later. He had his swab sample taken on April 11.

Samsung Vietnam’s representative said the company has identified people who made contacts with their worker, put them under quarantine and strictly enforced epidemic prevention protocol.

Nguyen Huong Giang, chairwoman of the People’s Committee of Bac Ninh province, told Zing that after case number 262 was confirmed, 44 people of the workshop were quarantined, the factory and buses used to transport workers to Samsung Display have been sprayed with disinfectant.

By April 13, the provincial authorities identified 106 people of close contact (F1) with Patient No.262.

Samsung Electronics is the largest single foreign investor in Vietnam, and its shipments, mostly smartphones, account for around a quarter of the country’s exports.

Samsung Vietnam expects its exports to fall by nearly US$6 billion year-on-year to US$45.5 billion this year as a result of weaker demand from the US and the EU, according to a recent report by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.