TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Video surfaced on Sunday (July 11) showing factory workers at a Taiwanese-owned factory in Vietnam breaking down a gate to escape out of fear of being infected with COVID-19.
Amid a surge in COVID cases in Vietnam, mass screening of residents of Bau Bang District in the country's Binh Duong Province revealed that a local woman working at a Taiwanese company had tested positive for the virus. On Saturday (July 10), local officials ordered Ampacs International Co., Ltd. to close down the factory to implement testing on all employees.
"Hundreds of workers in the factory panicked" upon hearing the news about the case, according to VN Express. As can be seen in footage of the incident, the crowd swarmed the entrance, forced the locked steel gate open with sheer numbers, and fled the scene.
Workers breaking free from barrier. (thanhnien.vn photo)
Officials have since called on the workers to return to the facility to undergo testing, but it is not clear how many fled the factory. By Sunday morning, health officials in Bau Bang District had tested 600 of those who had escaped.
The Taiwanese firm reportedly manufactures phone headsets and employs 5,900 workers. Located just north of Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong is an important industrial center that employs 1.2 million factory workers and has reported 1,305 COVID cases and two deaths.
Some companies in the district have been forced to suspend work due to infections or as certain sectors have been placed under lockdown to contain the outbreak.
This is insane, hundreds of workers pushed down the gates at ampacs factory - Bau Bang industrial zone in Binh Duong. People run for their life because they heard someone positive with Covid (although different division). pic.twitter.com/jzWngoLUyK
— Katherine Giang Vũ (@ellis_gg8) July 10, 2021
