Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. this week confirmed that a second worker has tested positive for the COVID-19 disease, but stressed that this would not affect its operations. As reported by Taiwan News.
The company has completed disinfection of employee's workspace, disinfected public areas, traced any contacts that the worker may have had. Close contacts were also sent home to isolate, and asked others to monitor their health. Overall, the company said it had done everything it could. Based on the company's statement, it is unclear whether the infected employees were office workers or cleanroom workers.
TSMC vows to monitor health of its employees on a daily basis and track down contacts of those tested positive for COVID-19, reports Taiwan News. It will also continue to use a combination of work from home and office work in a bid to minimize chances of an outbreak.
When the SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic started last year, most countries initiated a form of quarantine for those coming in from abroad, but very few actually closed down the country in a bid to avoid a local outbreak. Taiwan was one of them. But sooner or later all states have to open up and this is when the virus enters the country. In the recent weeks Taiwan had to impose local lockdowns in a bid to stop spreading the virus, yet since there is no collective immunity to SARS-CoV-2 just yet, such measures may be insufficient. As a consequence, there are chances that some production facilities in the republic will have to be temporarily halted, which will worsen shortages of computer components produced in Taiwan.
TSMC's production facilities are among the cleanest places on the planet, so chances that there will be a SARS-CoV-2 outbreak among cleanroom workers in the cleanroom are extremely low. Yet, people can get infected elsewhere and then share the virus in offices or locker rooms, so TSMC — just like other companies — is not completely safe.
