简体中文
Daimler Tower, Chaoyang District, Beijing, November 26, 2020. /CFP
Samples collected from an accessories department at the Daimler Northeast Asia Parts Trading and Services Co. in Beijing's Shunyi District tested positive for COVID-19, an official said at a press conference on Sunday.
The auto parts company is located in the Jinma industrial area in Shunyi District, where 11 people from the company have tested positive for coronavirus, said Zhi Xianwei, deputy director of Shunyi.
Zhi said the first confirmed case was detected in the auto parts company on December 26. The district immediately sealed off the industrial area and suspended work and production.
On December 30, the Daimler company said it had quarantined related workers and activated an emergency response mechanism.
The Beijing discipline inspection regulator on January 1 said that the company did not strictly abide by the relevant regulations on epidemic prevention and control, and had problems such as gatherings of employees and the irregular wearing of masks.
The workers there were infected with the virus first, then they contaminated the parts – it was not the parts that caused the workers to be infected. At the same time, the virus survived on the parts for a long time because of the cold weather, so COVID-19 could be detected on the parts when they were transported to other places, Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told CCTV in an interview.
Wu said as the amount of the contamination was relatively small, and people who came in contact with the parts may not be infected.
Still, cities including Yantai and Linyi in east China's Shandong Province, Hohhot in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and Jincheng in north China's Shanxi Province, have all found positive COVID-19 results on the packaging of auto parts originating from the Daimler company.
