(Yicai Global) Oct. 26 -- Foxconn Technology Group, Apple’s biggest contract manufacturer, dismissed online rumors that nearly 20,000 employees at its Zhengzhou campus in China’s central Henan province have been infected with Covid-19.

Pandemic-prevention efforts at the production base are progressing steadily, with a manageable impact on the group, the unit of Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry said in a statement to Yicai Global. The business performance outlook for this quarter remains unchanged, it added.

Only a small number of employees at the campus have been affected by the coronavirus, and the company is providing them with daily necessities, Foxconn said.

Zhengzhou reported three symptomatic cases and 21 asymptomatic cases of Covid yesterday, per statistics from the provincial health commission, which said that Henan had 125 people hospitalized with the virus and 354 asymptomatic carriers under medical surveillance as the end of yesterday.

Foxconn has three plants in Zhengzhou with a total of 90 production lines and about 350,000 workers, making it the world’s biggest iPhone assembly base.

According to Hon Hai’s latest financial report, revenue rose 14 percent to TWD4.66 trillion (USD144.6 billion) in the nine months ended Sept. 30, a record high for the same period. The outlook for this quarter is cautiously optimistic, it said, noting that inflation, Covid and supply chain conditions need to be closely monitored.

TrendForce said in a recent report that disposable incomes may soften due to rising interest rates in the United States. That will affect Apple’s production in the first quarter of next year, with iPhone output expected to fall from an original estimate of 56 million to 52 million.

Editor: Peter Thomas