TSMC: No Plans to Halt Ops as Second Employee Confirmed with COVID-19

TSMC
(Image credit: TSMC)

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. 

Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

  • InvalidError
    If the employees who got infected have the option of working from home, then I doubt they were clean-room employees since it would make very little sense for them to do remotable work from a clean room where non-essential keyboards, mice and PCs/laptops are unnecessary particulate matter hazards.
    Reply
  • Co BIY
    Two employees in a whole plant -

    -In Taiwan with it's effective contact tracing and culture of respecting others when sick.
    They were masking even before Fauci was anti-mask, when he said we should and continued after he changed back to not to.

    -At a professionally run company filled with intelligent employees

    That is a nothing problem.

    Taiwan is a bit behind in vaccination although that sounds like it will be much improved in a month or two. Also treatment protocols at this point are way better than the same time last year so each infection is much less dangerous.

    They haven't had the "first wave" experience though so that is a danger.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    Co BIY said:
    They were masking even before Fauci was anti-mask, when he said we should and continued after he changed back to not to.
    Fauci isn't anti-mask. The thing back then was that there was a PPE shortage for hospitals so he didn't want people panic-buying masks until that got sorted out to prevent the health care system completely collapsing from running out of staff.
    Reply
  • Co BIY
    InvalidError said:
    Fauci isn't anti-mask. The thing back then was that there was a PPE shortage for hospitals so he didn't want people panic-buying masks until that got sorted out to prevent the health care system completely collapsing from running out of staff.

    Lying to the public with a reason is still lying to the public and severely damaged his credibility. More so in that I don't think he feels he made a mistake in lying in the public and will do it again. We now know that what he (and the rest of our public health apparatus) tell us is not necessarily the truth but what they think will work out best for them.

    Is it best for them to pretend that the virus didn't originate in a Chinese lab who's research into these viruses they funded?

    Maybe they will discount/"de-bunk" and then ban those questions. We won't get to even talk about the facts of the situation.

    Maybe these Chinese labs were subcontracted to do the research because in the US and other free countries "Gain of Function" research methods especially with dangerous pathogens were restricted and placed under ethical scrutiny. But "what happens in China stays in China" wink, wink.

    Actually that is just like other things done in China, don't ask too many questions about how the "sausage/iPhone/dog food/drywall/Hong Kong policy" is made.

    When these questions were most important at the height of the outbreak with many unknowns, The first instinct of these people was to lie to the public. I don't think their instincts have changed.

    What creates more panic ? Panic and confusion comes when the public knows that they cannot trust what they are being told. They cannot trust that the questions that need to be asked can even get past the high-tech censorship of the tech media which supports the interests of those currently in power.
    Reply