Samsung, Hyundai Heavy Industries Executives Test Positive for COVID-19 During US CES Business Trip

[Asia Economy Reporter Dongwoo Lee] It has been revealed that employees of domestic companies such as Samsung Electronics, SK Group, and Hyundai Heavy Industries, who participated in the world's largest electronics and IT exhibition 'CES 2022' held last week in Las Vegas, USA, have consecutively tested positive for COVID-19.

According to the industry on the 11th, Samsung Electronics announced through an internal notice that about 20 employees who went on a business trip to CES tested positive for COVID-19 locally.

The employees who tested positive are currently self-isolating in the United States with the support of medical staff proactively dispatched by Samsung Electronics. Most of them are reported to be asymptomatic or have mild symptoms.

As employees who went on the business trip to the US were stranded due to positive COVID-19 test results, Samsung Electronics took swift action, including deciding to deploy a chartered flight.

Samsung Electronics plans to send the employees who tested positive on the 11th to 12th local time back to Korea via a chartered flight and have them stay in domestic quarantine facilities. It is known that they have completed consultations with US immigration authorities to allow the COVID-19 positive employees to board the chartered flight to Korea.

Six employees of Hyundai Heavy Industries also tested positive in pre-departure tests and are currently quarantined locally without being able to board the return flight. Among them, two have no symptoms at all, and the rest are reported to have mild symptoms.

Some employees of SK Group affiliates who participated in CES also tested positive. It is reported that about 6 to 7 people, with 1 to 2 from each affiliate, were confirmed positive.

There were also confirmed cases in Hyundai Motor Group. Several Hyundai Motor employees tested positive after returning to Korea, and some employees at Hyundai Mobis were also confirmed positive after returning. Accordingly, other employees who tested negative among the CES business trip participants are self-isolating while following quarantine guidelines, according to a Hyundai Motor Group official.

Two employees of Coway also tested positive locally and have not yet returned. Not only corporate employees but also several journalists who went to cover the event locally have been reported to have tested positive.

This year's CES was held over three days from the 5th to the 7th of this month at the Las Vegas Convention Center and major hotels in the United States. A large number of media personnel and visitors gathered at each company's exhibition hall and presentation events, during which COVID-19 is presumed to have spread.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.