Intel, Coca-Cola strives to maintain Vietnam production amid Covid-19

By Dat Nguyen July 13, 2021 | 11:47 pm PT

Facilities around Ho Chi Minh City make up U.S. chipmaker Intel's biggest assembly and testing operations worldwide. Photo courtesy of Intel.

Chip giant Intel and soda maker Coca-Cola are doing all they can to maintain manufacturing operations amid HCMC’s worst Covid-19 wave.

Intel has vaccinated 71 percent of its employees in Vietnam, which hosts the company’s largest chip assembly and testing site, according to Nikkei.

Vietnam has "put in place the safety mandates to ensure the safety for people first, which is very good, but [we] also have to keep the business running to maintain Vietnam's competitiveness," said Uyen Ho, Intel Vietnam and Malaysia director of public affairs.

Coca-Cola Vietnam has set up tents to house its workers within its premises to prevent contagion.

The company pays about $10 a day extra to workers who live on site and received their written consent so they would know what they were in for, said Truc Huynh, the company's human resources director.

"We need to prepare our people's mindset for living on site," she said.

These measures are imposed as Ho Chi Minh City experiences its most severe Covid-19 outbreak with over 18,000 local cases in over two months.

Amid the city’s 15-day social distancing campaign, only factories that have imposed strict social distancing measures, including setting up accommodation for its workers and conducting regular Covid-19 tests are allowed to operate.