44 people at a Vietnamese Samsung Display factory forced to quarantine over coronavirus fears

iPhone 11 Screens Rene Hero
iPhone 11 Screens Rene Hero (Image credit: Rene Ritchie)

What you need to know

  • A worker at a Vietnamese Samsung Display factory has coronavirus.
  • 40 people they have been in contact with are now in quarantine.
  • Japan Display produces iPhone screens for Apple.

Authorities have ordered that people working at a Vietnamese Japan Display factory be quarantined, according to a report by Reuters. This after a worker at the Bac Ninh plant tested positive for coronavirus over the weekend.

The report notes that a "25-year-old worker of the EQC-SI unit" at the plant was tested as positive for the virus on Sunday, but Samsung Display's parent company, Samsung Electronics, says that production hasn't yet been affected. That despite the fact that 44 people who the person came into contact with have been ordered to quarantine themselves by authorities. Nguyen Huong Giang, chair of the People's Committee of Bac Ninh province, also told a state broadcaster that vehicles used to transport workers have undergone deep cleaning.

While Japan Display produces the OLED screens used in Apple's high-end iPhones it isn't clear whether this factory is involved in that contract. Regardless, this is another example of the potential for coronavirus to impact large tech companies and their products.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.