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World's largest iPhone factories ore keeping up despite COVID outbreak

Foxconn's main iPhone manufacturing plants in Zhengzhou are reportedly maintaining production speeds with the help of frequent staff and populace testing, and strict restrictions on travel.

The factories in Zhengzhou are apparently being kept running by frequent staff testing. And, that testing supplied and managed by Foxconn is ranging into the local populace surrounding three facilities in the area as well.

A sixth round of testing for workers was conducted on Tuesday. Workers who refuse testing are prohibited from entering production areas.

The report, published by the South China Morning Post on Thursday morning, cites sources inside the plant. While the region is battling both the Delta and Omicron variants simultaneously, a company representative has said that the virus "hasn't affected production capacity so far."

Residents of the area are also under a strict order to not leave housing of any sort unless they have a recent COVID-19 test. Private vehicles have been ordered off the road, and it isn't clear when that prohibition will be lifted.

Foxconn didn't escape 2021 unscathed, however. The company's Henan plant shuttered in July 2021 because of regional flooding. By August, Foxconn had re-staffed the plant, dealt with the impact of the flooding, and was back up to full speed.

Recent reports suggest Apple is very nearly keeping up with demand for the iPhone 13 family. The same cannot be said of the MacBook Pro, but other companies in other regions are responsible for Mac assembly.



2 Comments

entropys 13 Years · 4316 comments

How could there be any issues? Since the outbreak began, China has reported it has only had 104,580 cases in total, and only 201 new cases yesterday

In perspective, little tiny Australia had 122,000 new cases yesterday! Clearly China is managing things perfectly!

with such low numbers of infections, production of anything in China should be powering along.