Volkswagen will temporarily close production at many of its plants from the end of the week due to the coronavirus

Volkswagen will temporarily close production at many of its plants from the end of the week due to the coronavirus pandemic, Herbert Diess, chairman of the german carmaker’s board (CEO) announced Tuesday.

“Given the current significant deterioration in unit sales and the emerging uncertainty in the supply of parts to our plants, there will also be immediate production halts at our brand’s factories,” he said. Diess said tuesday.

Volkswagen’s German plants recently confirmed the first case of coronavirus infection among their employees.

On Tuesday, wolfsburgan’s trade committee announced that the last round would take place on Friday in the vast majority of Volkswagen locations in Germany and Europe.

Volkswagen, Germany’s largest car maker, has more than 670,000 employees worldwide. The group operates 124 manufacturing plants in 20 countries in Europe and 11 countries and regions in the Americas, Asia and Africa.

“It is not clear how severely or for how long this will also affect the Volkswagen Group,” said Frank Witter, a board member of Volkswagen’s financial and IT group.

“We are making full use of all task force measures to support our employees and their families and to stabilise our business,” Witter added.