The Covid-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the country. Even as restrictions have been drastically eased compared to the first three stages of the lockdown, the number of infected cases has been on the rise ever since.
With business operations slowly gathering pace across sectors, the number of fatalities due to coronavirus has also increased which has affected many industries especially the auto industry adversely. The latest example being the case at Toyota’s manufacturing facility at Karnataka.
Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) on Monday said it has suspended operations at its manufacturing plant in Bidadi for a day following the unfortunate death of an employee due to COVID-19. In a statement released by the company, it added that the cause of death has been identified as COVID-19.
The company deeply regrets to inform the sad news of an untimely demise of one of its employees and expresses its sincere condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of the deceased employee, TKM said in a statement.
The employee had last attended work at the factory on June 23 and hence as of now there has been no clear evidence of internal transmission within the company from this case or the previously reported eight COVID-19 positive cases at the plant, TKM said. In line with the government guidelines, the company has quarantined the employees suspected of having primary or secondary contact with the deceased until June 23, it added.
Measures Taken By The Company
The automaker as a precautionary measure has suspended its production for the day and has carried out the required process of disinfecting the workplace, TKM said. The company will resume operations at the plant on July 7 post confirming the safety of the workplace and adhering to all the mandatory protocols, it added.
Earlier, in June, the Japanese automaker had suspended its operations at its Bidadi facility temporarily after two of its employees tested positive for Covid-19. Apart from taking care of its employees, Toyota Kirloskar Motors has also handed over a mobile medical unit (MMU) to the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru to scale up COVID-19 testing in the state.
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This MMU is used as a molecular diagnostic laboratory and tests for COVID-19 are conducted and test results are provided in a timely manner. All patients can be tested at their homes, rather than coming and overcrowding the hospitals. The MMU is particularly useful as it can be driven to areas where there is no medical infrastructure for local communities.