Workers from Apple’s largest iPhone assembly plant in Zhengzhou, Central China’s Henan province, wait with their luggage in a vacant lot Tuesday to leave the factory amid the fears of a worsening Covid outbreak on site. Photo: Chen Liang/Caixin

Located in the Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone, the plant has more than 200,000 workers and has been wrestling with an outbreak since mid-October. Photo: Chen Liang/Caixin

Two workers leave the factory on Tuesday morning. The factory accounts for 80% of Apple’s capacity for the iPhone 14 series, with more than 85% of iPhone 14 Pro capacity based there, according to Counterpoint senior analyst Ivan Lam. Photo: Chen Liang/Caixin

Workers who choose to stay at the factory gather at dormitories that have been disinfected. Foxconn is trying to lure runaway workers back to its Zhengzhou factory with incentives such as higher wages, as pandemic lockdowns and a worker shortage disrupt production. Photo: Chen Liang/Caixin

Contract workers dressed in protective gear prepare to clean the plant’s dormitory Monday. Some village cadres in Henan have been deployed to help Foxconn hire workers, as it needs some 10,000 new employees for its manufacturing operation, state media reported Friday. Photo: Chen Liang/Caixin

Some of the workers hired to disinfect areas of the factory get sent to an isolation hotel in Zhengzhou on Monday due to abnormal Covid test results. Photo: Chen Liang/Caixin

Cleaners remove their protective gear at the entrance of the isolation hotel Monday. Photo: Chen Liang/Caixin

Used protective clothing litters a street in the Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone on Monday. Zhengzhou reported 200 confirmed cases and 1,650 asymptomatic ones for Tuesday. Photo: Chen Liang/Caixin