BUDAPEST (Reuters)-About 200 workers at the MOLB.BU polyol factory built by the Hungarian energy group MOL in the eastern town of Tiszaujvaros were infected with the coronavirus, MOL’s petrochemical department wrote in a letter to the town’s mayor .

A MOL press officer confirmed the authenticity of the letter, which was dated October 5th and was posted on Facebook by the mayor.

The letter stated that 200 infected workers have been quarantined without any symptoms. MOL stated that work on the construction site is still in progress and the number of personnel has decreased.

This $1.3 billion plant was built by ThyssenKrupp TKAG.DE, Germany, and will make MOL the only integrated polyether polyol producer in Central and Eastern Europe.

Products in the automotive, construction, packaging, and furniture industries require these compounds.

MOL said in the letter that it tests its blue-collar employees for coronavirus every two to three weeks and expects to test all white-collar employees by the end of this month. MOL stated that it expects subcontractors to also test their employees.

As of Tuesday, Hungary had reported 32,298 coronavirus cases, of which 853 had died and 8,723 had recovered. There has been a surge in new cases in the past few weeks, and the 20 deaths registered on Tuesday are the highest since the pandemic began.

Reporting by Gergely Szakacs; editing by Tomasz Janowski

Our standard: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

All quotes are delayed by at least 15 minutes. Please see the complete list of exchanges and delays here.