The spread of the coronavirus has been a major concern in China over the past couple of weeks. It has in one way or the other affected the production chain of major tech companies. Due to this outbreak, the likes of LG and ZTE even withdrew from the MWC 2020 to help deal with disruptions.

From a memo obtained by Bloomberg, Foxconn which is Apple iPhone manufacturer has instructed its employees who have gone for the Chinese New Year break to avoid coming back to work. The workers of Foxconn was expected to resume work by February 10 received the following message from Foxconn.

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To safeguard everyone’s health and safety and comply with government virus prevention measures, we urge you not to return to Shenzhen […] We’ll update you on the situation in the city. The company will protect everyone’s work-related rights and interests in the duration. As for the happy reunion date in Shenzhen, please wait for further notice.

In line with the above memo, all work in Shenzhen is been placed on hold till when the condition improves. It therefore implies that iPhone production in the Shenzhen headquarters is on pause mode.

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It is true that Apples main manufacturing is not in Shenzhen which is the Chinese headquarters of Foxconn. But the office in Shenzhen employes thousands of persons that don’t even live there. The main manufacturing place for Apple is Zhengzhou (and other offices) but we can’t confirm is this memo only apply to those persons working in the Shenzhen office.

According to Bloomberg, workers who are resuming work from outside Zhenzhou will have to be quarantined for 14 days which is the number of days it takes for an infected person to develop symptoms of the coronavirus. We might just see some major shift and changes in iPhone release this year as the coronavirus is causing some disruption to its production schedule.