Toyota Canada announced it is extending its North American shutdown after it learned that a second employee at its Cambridge, Ont. plant had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
On Wednesday, the automotive manufacturer said in a statement that “this employee was one of those identified as having had close contact with the employee who tested positive on March 18.”
Toyota says that employee last worked at the North Plant on March 18 before going into self-isolation at home.
It says that local public health agencies are contacting others who have had contact with the person.
On March 18, Toyota was first alerted to the fact that an employee had tested positive for COVID-19.
That employee’s last shift at the Cambridge plant was on March 12.
Get weekly health news
On Wednesday Toyota stated, “we heard last week that the first TM is home recovering well.”
Initially, Toyota had planned to shut the plant down for a couple of days for a deep clean but since chose to close it down completely.
The company then announced it was shutting down all of its North American plants until April 6.
On Thursday, the company announced that it was extending the closure through April 17, with production set to resume on April 20.