TAIPEI (Reuters) – Foxconn, a supplier to Apple, said on Monday it had suspended operations in the city of Shenzhen, China, due to restrictions related to the coronavirus epidemic.
Shenzhen authorities decided to carry out mass testing after dozens of new cases of coronavirus contamination were registered in the city.
The Taiwanese company said in a statement that it would suspend its Shenzhen operations until further notice and relocate its operations to other factories in China to minimize the impact of this decision.
Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that activity at Foxconn’s Shenzhen subsidiaries would be halted during the first half of the week.
One of the sources explained that the government allowed companies to operate if they could create a “closed management” system in which employees lived and worked in a bubble, cut off from the general public. Such a system was in place during the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Report Sarah Wu; French version Camille Raynaud)