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Exclusive | Foxconn’s largest iPhone factory confirms Covid-19 impact after central China campus restricted worker movement
- Foxconn said a ‘small number of employees’ on the Zhengzhou campus have been affected and that production remains ‘relatively stable’
- The news comes after Apple’s largest supplier restricted workers to eating in their dorms last week amid China’s continued zero-Covid approach
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Iris Dengin Shenzhen
Foxconn Technology Group has confirmed that the world’s largest iPhone factory, in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, is dealing with a small Covid-19 outbreak but said production remains “relatively stable”.
Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Technology Group, confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that “[a] small number of employees” on the campus have been affected by Covid-19, after the South China Morning Post reported earlier that the factory had gone to the extreme of banning dining in cafeterias and requiring employees to follow fixed routes in commuting between dormitories and the workplace.
“For the small number of employees affected by the pandemic, Foxconn, in compliance with local epidemic prevention policies, is providing the necessary guarantees for livelihoods, including material supplies, psychological comfort and responsive feedback,” the company said in its statement.
“Operations and production in the Zhengzhou park are relatively stable with health and safety measures for employees being maintained,” Foxconn added. “At present, the epidemic prevention work in Zhengzhou is progressing steadily, and the impact on the group is controllable.”
The response from Apple’s largest supplier came after widespread discussions on Chinese social media platforms including Weibo and ByteDance’s Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, about the Covid situation on the Zhengzhou campus, which has been sealed off to maintain operations in a “production bubble” with tightened restrictions.
Videos and texts complaining about a strict lockdown at the Zhengzhou compound were also shared widely on Chinese social media, including the Instagram-style Xiaohongshu and Weibo. On Weibo’s Foxconn topic page, many users asked for help and more attention on the outbreak. Some users said there were new positive cases from the factory’s nucleic acid tests every day, but many people were not receiving food and medication.
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