Boeing Sends Home Washington Factory Workers as Virus Precaution

(Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co. sent home a worker with flu-like symptoms from one of its wide-body production lines, as well as 10 other employees who were in close contact with him, as concerns spread over the global coronavirus.

The stricken employee at the 777 plant in Everett, Washington, was sent home Wednesday and slated to follow up with his doctor Thursday, the planemaker said in a message to employees. He didn't require emergency care and the company started cleaning the work area as a precaution.

The hulking facility, about an hour north of Seattle, is the largest enclosed structure on earth. The twin-aisle planes made there -- including the 767 and the 787 Dreamliner -- are a critical source of revenue for Boeing while it works with regulators to end a grounding of the 737 Max, the company's best-selling jetliner.

Boeing said it wasn't aware of any confirmed coronavirus cases in its workforce and has a medical team monitoring its sites. The Chicago-based company has about 72,000 employees in Washington, an early hot spot for the virus in the U.S.

Read more: N.Y. Cases Now 22; WHO Chides Nations on Effort: Virus Update

To contact the reporter on this story: Julie Johnsson in Chicago at jjohnsson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Case at bcase4@bloomberg.net, Tony Robinson

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