China Locks Down Area Around ‘iPhone City’ in Blow to Apple

A Covid flare-up forced some of Foxconn’s 200,000 workers into quarantine and drove others to flee the facility — some on foot.

(Bloomberg) — China ordered a seven-day pandemic-control lockdown of the area around Foxconn Technology Group’s main plant in Zhengzhou, a move that will severely curtail shipments in and out of the world’s largest iPhone factory.

The lockdown will last until Nov. 9, the local government said in a statement posted to its WeChat account. It ordered people and vehicles off the streets except for medical or other essential reasons, a prohibition that threatens to cut off the flow of additional workers and components needed to rev up production ahead of the holiday-season crush.