Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

"The Witcher" S2 Production Halts Due to Coronavirus


Mon 16 Mar 2020 | 05:38 PM
Yara Sameh

Netflix has halted for two weeks the production of the second season of the fantasy video game adaptation series “The Witcher” due to the coronavirus, making it the first major series to be halted in the UK. because of the outbreak.

“The Witcher” is an original series produced by Netflix and is shot at Arborfield Studios to the west of London.

The production crew was informed Sunday evening about the decision and also told that they will continue to receive their paycheck from Netflix during the two-week suspend.

A source close to the production shared with variety the staff email, which read: “The coronavirus has raised challenging issues for everyone working on set on productions for Netflix. We are very grateful for all the work everyone has done to keep cast and crew safe during this pandemic.

“Cast and crew health is our primary concern. We are dealing with an unprecedented global pandemic that is beyond our control, and in many instances with mandates or restrictions imposed by governments (including travel restrictions in many countries).

“As such, we have made the decision, effective immediately, to pause production for two weeks during this difficult time, and we will support our production partners working on Netflix UK scripted series in doing the same. This will allow everyone the time to make informed decisions about how to move forward.”

It is worth mentioning that, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus a global pandemic as the new virus has rapidly spread to more than 121,000 people from Asia to the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.

More cases of the virus, which causes respiratory disease Covid-19, continue to emerge, with outbreaks in South Korea, Italy, and Iran.

Italy recorded 368 more deaths from the coronavirus outbreak on Sunday, its biggest one day rise, amid growing concern about the ability of its strained health system to cope with the relentless increase in new cases.

Transmission of viruses between humans happens when someone comes into contact with an infected person’s secretions, such as droplets in a cough. They can also be transmitted by coming into contact with something an infected person has touched and then touching your mouth, nose or eyes.

It is known that older people appear to be more vulnerable to the effects of the emerging virus.