Nissan on Wednesday said it would halt production at its Canton facility and others in the U.S. for two weeks due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The production outage — affecting about 5,250 employees in Canton — will last from March 20 through April 6.

"The company is taking this action to boost containment efforts where possible around the COVID-19 coronavirus," spokeswoman Lloryn Love-Carter said. "Currently, there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 coronavirus at any Nissan facility. Areas deemed business-essential will operate with enhanced safety measures."

Love-Carter said employees would continue to be paid during the outage.

Nissan's announcement follows news that Toyota would also temporarily suspend production at its Blue Springs plant and others across North America next Monday and Tuesday.

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The company said it planned to conduct thorough cleanings during the outage and allow employees to adjust to changing family plans related to the coronavirus. About 2,000 work at Toyota's Mississippi facility, and they will continue to be paid, according to the Daily Journal.

The news comes as many other car companies, including Detroit's big three — General Motors, Ford and Chrysler — temporarily closed plants across the U.S. and Europe in response to the virus.

Nissan workers in Canton had expressed frustration in recent days they were still being asked to work in the face of the spreading virus, according to reporting by Payday Report. Workers told the outlet it was impossible to maintain adequate social distancing while working on the assembly line.

“When you have a plant of 6,000 people that are in-and-out of here in a 24-hour period, it can spread quite fast,” one employee, Travis Parks, told the outlet.

Contact Luke Ramseth at 601-961-7050 or lramseth@gannett.com. Follow @lramseth on Twitter.