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Foxconn’s strict coronavirus precautions include tracking where workers sit

Foxconn is implementing some of the world’s strictest coronavirus precautions as it aims to keep its one million workers safe and iPhone 12 production on schedule.

The Chinese government requires all factories to implement a series of specific safeguards, but Foxconn is going far further …

The Washington Post describes the government-mandated measures.

Since businesses began reopening in February, China’s State Council has required companies to supply employees with face masks and check everyone’s temperature daily. Employers must submit daily reports on workers’ health statuses, a system dubbed “One Person, One File” […]

[Other legally-required measures include] opening office windows three times a day for 30-minute stretches. Beijing has suspended the use of fingerprint-entry keypads and forbidden workers from sitting face-to-face while eating lunch.

But it reports that Foxconn goes well beyond these.

At Foxconn’s iPhone-making complex in Zhengzhou, workers have been put into teams of 20 that stick together night and day to facilitate health tracking, according to a notice by the Zhengzhou government.

“The same group of employees work, travel, live, and eat together to ensure that employees’ personal trajectories are fully traced,” the notice said […]

Foxconn cafeteria seats have been labeled with QR codes for workers to scan so the company has a record of who sat where and when for meals, according to company notices. At their dorms, workers are told to leave their coats and bags in a designated place for disinfection.

These measures should ensure that any infection among workers would be limited, and that any other employees at risk can be quickly identified.

Foxconn isn’t the only company to be taking precautions to an extreme: Huawei has reportedly issued a 73-page manual on detailed coronavirus-prevention protocols.

All Wuhan residents are required by law to attend hospital wearing masks and goggles in order to be tested. A negative test gives them a health clearance which allows them to leave their housing complexes and return to work.

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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