Ford said, in light of various governments’ orders to stay and work from home, it was now not planning to restart plants in the US, Canada and Mexico on Monday, 30 March as originally hoped.

“We are assessing various options and working with union leaders – including the United Auto Workers [US] and Unifor [Canada] – on the optimal timing for resuming vehicle production, keeping the well-being of our workforce top of mind.

“We will provide additional updates as details are confirmed.”

The automaker has stopped output at most of its manufacturing plants worldwide.