Did Foxconn staff die due to Covid lockdown? Video claims so, firm issues denial

Foxconn Technology Group on Tuesday (November 1) denied social media claims which suggested that several people died due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak at its main iPhone plant in China.

A video of the same was posted on the micro-blogging site Twitter. The viral video appeared to describe the deaths of eight Foxconn workers inside a company-operated dormitory.

In a statement, a Foxconn unit said: "There are no deaths at our facility. We believe this is a maliciously edited video. The group is making every effort to ensure the production safety, and health and safety of colleagues."

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In the past few weeks, Foxconn has been struggling with a COVID-19 outbreak at its facility in Zhengzhou, a base from where it makes most of the world’s iPhones.

Reports have mentioned that amid the disruptions from the local Covid flare-up, the firm is raising wages and arranging for backup from its other Chinese plants should assembly lines stall in Zhengzhou.

In a report by Reuters, an incident has been described as a person named Yuan said that he climbed the fences on Saturday night after enduring days of lock-in at Foxconn's vast facility in central China with 200,000 other workers.

It is believed that several others also flee amid what they feared was a widening COVID outbreak.

WATCH |Chinese workers jump fences to escape lockdown

Yuan, who declined to give his full name because of the matter's sensitivity, said that he walked through the night, keeping to a northerly route. He said that he walked towards his hometown of Hebi.

Yuan told Reuters: "There were so many people on the road. We were shut in on October 14, and we had to do endless PCR tests, and after about 10 days, we had to wear N95 masks, and were given traditional Chinese medicine."

He further told Reuters that whenever a positive or suspected case was found at a production line, there would be a public broadcast, but work would continue.

"People would be called away in the middle of work, and if they don't show up the next day, that would mean they had been taken away," Yuan said.

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