Ford plans to resume North America production from May 18

Ford Motor stated on Thursday it is preparing to resume production and operations in North America in a phased manner, starting May 18.

The automaker said from that date it will also start bringing back some workers whose work cannot be done remotely such as vehicle testing and design. This includes about 12,000 workers in North America, the automaker said.

Ford had to shut down production in order to help control the spread of the coroanvirus.

This week General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) had said they were thinking about restarting vehicle production in North America on May 18, but providers would need time to prepare before that date.