Photo: Xinhua

All staff at SK Hynix's Chongqing plant have tested negative for COVID-19 allowing operations to resume under strict prevention measures, the company said in a statement on Monday. 

Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality is the world's largest production base for laptops. Earlier a COVID-19 positive case of one of its South Korean staff caused a temporary halt of production at the SK Hynix plant, leading to emergency testing being carried out on more than 8,200 people. The Chongqing facility reportedly accounts for nearly 40 percent of SK Hynix's NAND flash output.

A total of 674 testing samples were collected from the company site, in addition to the hotel where the South Korean staff live. All samples returned negative. 

Founded in 2013 within Chongqing's Xiyong Mirco-electronics industrial park, SK Hynix's Chongqing facility employs approximately 2,500 people as of 2019, based on available earnings reports.

The Xiyong industrial park realized an output value of 4.098 billion yuan ($623.3 million), up 52.3 percent year-on-year, in the first quarter of 2020, according to its official website.

Global Times