(Yicai Global) March 14 -- The world's largest Apple supplier Hon Hai Precision Industry, better known as Foxconn, has suspended production at its iPhone plants in Shenzhen, in Guangdong province, due to a new Covid-19 outbreak in the city.

Campuses including the one in Longhua District and another on Guanlan Street will halt operation from today, the Taiwan-based contract manufacturer said, The Paper reported today. All people living in the campuses are in the process of taking nucleic acid tests to ensure the workers’ safety and health, it added. When work will resume is subject to a further local government notice, the company added.

Production deployments have been conducted in other backup campuses to reduce the impacts on Foxconn’s output, it told The Paper, without specifying how much this shut-down will affect the company.

Shenzhen reported 86 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases yesterday, of which 75 are symptomatic and 11 asymptomatic, according to data released by the city's health authority. Sixty-six cases were identified on March 12, and 29 on March 11.

Apart from those providing public services ensuring the residents’ basic life, other companies shall let staffers work from home and suspend production and operational activities to reduce the spread of Covid-19, the Shenzhen government announced late yesterday. Three rounds of city-wide nucleic acid tests will be carried out, it added.

Foxconn has over 40 campuses in the Chinese mainland and has its mainland operation bases in Shenzhen’s Longhua Science and Technology Park, which was completed in 1996. The park mostly makes iPhones and it is responsible for the production and assembly of iPad and Mac accessories.

Editor: Futura Costaglione