Manufacturing employees, especially those who work on the line, have a high risk of exposure to the novel coronavirus simply due to the nature of the job. Firstly, the distance between workers on assembly and production lines is often minimal.
Secondly, shifts tend to be long; between 8 and 12 hours. That means workers have prolonged contact with each other. Lastly, there are a lot of communal surfaces, from workstations to tools to break areas. Germs can be spread through airborne droplets from a cough or sneeze as well as contaminated surfaces.