Fatalities confirmed among automotive seating workers in Mexico
Automotive seating supplier Lear Corporation has confirmed that “several” of its employees in Ciudad Juárez have died as a result of an outbreak of covid-19.
Media in Mexico and the US, including The New York Times, have reported the fatalities. Several have reported a statement from Lear Corporation that says: “We are saddened that several em-ployees at our Juarez operations, who were receiving medical treatment for presumed cases of covid-19, have passed away, officially due to complications of respiratory illness.” This statement is not currently on view on Lear’s website.
It said its subsidiary in Mexico was working closely with the country’s social security institute “to provide the necessary support, including grief counselling and medical care”.
Ciudad Juárez reported its first case of covid-19 on March 20; the person who tested positive had returned from a trip to New York. By March 25, there were four cases in the city but the numbers have risen steadily since then. At the end of April, the authorities in Ciudad Juárez said the city had had 259 confirmed cases of covid-19, resulting in 64 deaths so far.
The governor of the state of Chihuahua, Javier Corral, announced initial measures to prevent the spread of the virus on March 24. Reports say Lear Corporation began to wind down its operations in the city on March 27 and that, by April 1, its activity there had come to a halt for now.
