In mid-May, Mexican authorities mentioned that if authorized safety precautions were in effect, the automotive industry might depart from the coronavirus lockdown before June 1st.

Japanese automotive manufacturers Toyota, Nissan including Honda said they are slowly relaunching in Mexico as the country's car industry restarts in accordance with a wider economic reopening, amid the increasing number of new infections of coronavirus.

Those three Japanese companies have been unable to disclose specific dates for the re-launch. On Monday, Toyota Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Co Ltd confirmed in a news website that they were planning to restart business slowly and last Friday, Honda Motor Co Ltd announced it had started a phased return to operations.

In a message to their employees, United States automotive parts manufacturer Lear Corp instructed 600 workers to report on Monday for duties at their Rio Bravo factory in northern Mexico responsible for supplying to Daimler AG and Ford.  The factory had been the location of a coronavirus outbreak in which Lear said 18 employees were killed.

The corporation said that it was introducing security measures however no production in any Mexican factory had begun.

According to three Lear workers, they had served at Rio Bravo over the weekend. Lear offered a 300-peso ($13.30) compensation for every 12-hour shift on Saturday and Sunday, in a message addressed to employees who had accomplished mandatory training.

Since the outbreak entered the nation in late February, Mexico has reported a record of  68,620 new infections and 7,394 fatalities, raising fears about reopening the country too early. Last week, the state governor of Puebla, home to valuable Volkswagen and Audi manufacturing facilities, said such circumstances "do not exist" for reopening the automobile industry.

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Mexico reopening amid coronavirus fears

Earlier this month, Mexico published guidelines for reopening operations in the automotive, construction as well as mining divisions, pressing forward with restarting the country amid a rising COVID-19 pandemic national tally and doubts about contaminated work places.

Made public overnight, Mexico's directives, mandate businesses to apply guidelines for exiting the COVID-19 lockdown to health departments. Whether they can begin operational activities, companies would then be informed within 72 hours.

The steps to lift restrictions follow increasing U.S. tension to reopen facilities that are crucial to U.S.-based distribution networks, particularly in the large automotive industry.

As one of the actions to protect employees, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said businesses will have to answer a broad questionnaire.

"Today they can start doing the paperwork so that companies in the construction, transport and mining industries can start their activities, beginning with their health protocols," Lopez Obrador said in his daily news conference.

The government has said that the directives would result in a gradual reopening following a so-called traffic light system implemented by the officials.