A new report claims that Foxconn downplayed the severity of its October COVID-19 outbreak and that its actions led to a stricter lockdown.
When Foxconn’s factory in Zhengzhou was hit by a COVID outbreak in late October, a spokesperson for the major Apple assembly partner claimed the outbreak was controllable and that conditions at the factory were stable.
However, a Monday report from The Wall Street Journal, based on interviews with over two dozen Foxconn workers and their relatives, as well as the company’s announcements on its WeChat account, indicates that Foxconn wrongly downplayed the outbreak.
One employee said the quarantine started on October 7, as she and her coworkers were told they couldn’t leave their production unit.
Most anyone working at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant in the provincial capital of Henan would be accustomed to life under zero-Covid. One 27-year-old quality-control worker recounted how she had undergone the compulsory two-day quarantine before starting a three-month contract in August, and a shorter one while on the campus where she lived with many of the 200,000 or so other workers.
Still, the midnight lockdown in work zone G came as a shock, she said.
Working late on the first Friday in October, she and her co-workers were told they couldn’t leave their production unit. She said she stayed there for the next 27 hours, jolting awake several times because of the cold as she snatched what sleep she could.
“The virus had never felt this close. It’s right in front of my eyes,” she posted on social media that Sunday. “I confess, I’m terrified.”
There was no inkling of what would come, she told the Journal.
The iPhone manufacturer did not reveal the number of COVID cases it found. On its WeChat account, it shared stories from recovered patients. The company reportedly compared it to a cold, while sharing statements from medical experts who downplayed the dangers of catching the virus.
“I don’t know how many positive cases were detected each day, but I saw people around me slowly disappearing,” said a quality-control worker.
By late October, it appeared that Foxconn was more focused on keeping production running than on implementing and enforcing strict pandemic protocols, said a production-line manager.
Some employees that returned to work following a quarantine didn’t believe they had all tested negative. Instead, some believed the company was mixing COVID patients with healthy workers in an attempt to promote herd immunity.
In late October, Foxconn began offering higher bonuses for workers that continued working, in the face of workers attempting to return home to avoid being trapped at the factory if the lockdowns increased.
“Calm down and return to work. It’s better than going home to a quarantine,” a Foxconn loudspeaker reportedly announced.
The lockdown at Foxconn began on Wednesday, November 2, and is currently scheduled to last through November 9.
(Via AppleInsider)