Toyota halts production in European plants amid COVID-19 crisis
Toyota Motor Corp. announced on Monday that its auto plants in Europe will halt production, at least until April 20, because of the new coronavirus outbreak. Its European plants are in France, Great Britain, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Turkey and Portugal.
All its plants in China resumed normal production Monday, spokeswoman Kayo Doi said. Japan’s top automaker also stopped production in Russia, through Friday. It earlier halted assembly lines in North America and has partially shut down production in Japan, South America and parts of Asia.
Meanwhile, bracing the nation for a death toll that could exceed 100,000 people, President Donald Trump on Sunday extended restrictive social distancing guidelines through April, bowing to public-health experts who presented him with even more dire projections for the expanding coronavirus pandemic.
COVID-19 continues its relentless spread, as the daily number of infections worldwide continues to jump sharply. World Health Organization figures show the increase in new infections is now about 70,000 per day - up from about 50,000 just days ago. More than 32,000 people have died worldwide. The U.S. had over 139,000 infections and 2,400 deaths, a running tally by a prominent university showed Sunday evening.
(With inputs from AP)
