iPhone 12 Production In India Plunges By 50% Amid COVID-19 Crisis

Production of the Apple iPhone 12 at a Foxconn factory in India has plunged by 50% as the country reels under the second wave of coronavirus. The slump comes as workers infected with COVID-19 have had to leave their posts, Reuters reported citing two sources.

The Foxconn facility in Tamil Nadu, a southern state in India, produces iPhones specifically for the country. However, state officials on Monday imposed a full lockdown, closing public transport and shutting down shops, in an attempt to curb the spread of coronavirus.

More than 100 employees in the Foxconn factory have been diagnosed with COVID-19, forcing the company to impose a no-entry ban at its factory in the capital of Chennai until late May, one of the sources told Reuters.

"Employees are only allowed to leave but not to enter the facility since yesterday," the source added.

The lockdown and the ban have cut the plant’s capacity by 50%. It is currently unclear how many workers are still at the facility, the report said.

Foxconn, a company based in Taipei, Taiwan, confirmed that a "small number of employees" had tested positive for the virus. It, however, declined to state the exact number of infected workers. The company said it is helping its employees with medical assistance.

"Foxconn places the health and safety of our employees as our highest priority and that is why we have been working closely with local government and public health authorities in India to address the challenges that we and all companies are facing in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis," the company said in a statement to the publication.

The dip in India’s iPhone 12 production comes as the country’s healthcare system buckles under the COVID-19 crisis.

On Monday, at least 71 bodies were found floating on the banks of the Ganges River in Bihar's Buxar district. Authorities said they could not confirm the cause of death in the post-mortem of the bodies due to heavy decomposition. They also suggested that the bodies had been submerged in the river for roughly three to four days.

"It is clear that the bodies are not from Buxar district. But it is possible that they have floated down the river from other cities situated along the river,” Buxar officials said in a statement.

More corpses washed up in the Ghaziphur district in neighboring Uttar Pradesh state on Tuesday. The site is located 30 miles from the Buxar district.