(Yicai Global) May 31 -- Chinese electronics giants Hon Hai Precision Industry, better known as Foxconn, and Luxshare Precision Industry have temporarily closed their factories in Vietnam to abide by pandemic control measures required by local authorities as a new wave of Covid-19 grips the southeast Asian country, the Securities Times reported today, citing the two firms.

The temporary closure of Luxshare’s plants in the Bac Nihn and Bac Giang provinces, which make wireless earbuds for US tech giant Apple’s Airpods, will have limited impact as their production schedule is flexible, the Dongguan, southern Guangdong province-based firm said. The factories will fully adopt all disease prevention measures as stipulated by the local government, it added.

Foxconn expects that its plants in Bac Giang province, which make display panels and television sets, will be among the first batch able to reopen after completing inspections as the factories strictly adhere to all health and sanitation requirements, said the Taipei-based company, which is one of California-based Apple's biggest contract assemblers.

"Vietnam has uncovered a new Covid-19 strain combining characteristics of two known variants first found in India and the UK," Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said on May 29.

There has been a big spike in the disease in the last few weeks, with Vietnam reporting 3,500 new cases and 12 deaths. This brings the total number of cases to 6,908 since January 3, 2020 and the death toll to 47 cases, according to the World Health Organization. As of May 13, 980,076 vaccine doses had been administered.

Editor: Kim Taylor