[Photo by SK Hynix Inc.]

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South Korea’s second biggest chipmaker SK Hynix Inc. has quarantined more than 800 employees upon discovering two novices in training showing symptoms after contact with a new coronavirus (COVID-19) patient in Daegu.

An official from the company said on Thursday that it placed any employee who was found to have been in contact with suspected employees under self-quarantine as a preemptive measure not to take any chance.

The company on Wednesday sent home about 280 new recruits under training at its education facility SK Hynix University in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, after finding out one of them had a close contact with an infected patient.

It said its factory operating will not be affected by the measure because it has more than 18,000 workers at its Icheon Campus.

Currently, two employees of SK Hynix are under test at Gyeonggi Provincial Medical Center Icheon Hospital.

The number of confirmed cases of the China-originated new coronavirus soared 82 as of Thursday as the country added 31 new cases on just that day mostly in Daegu and neighboring North Gyeongsang Province. Most of the newly infected patients were known to have attended the same church in Daegu with the 31st patient.

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