back to article An Apple a day might not keep the doctor away: iGiant's China stores face closures, deep cleans, staff temperature checks amid virus outbreak

Apple is in talks with suppliers located in Wuhan, China, to “mitigate” any disruption to production caused by the coronavirus outbreak, said CEO Tim Cook. In a conference call on Tuesday with Wall Street analysts to discuss the iGiant's Q1 financial figures, the head honcho was asked what Apple’s strategy is with regard to …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They used to say when the US sneezes the rest of the World catches a cold, apparently it's now China.

    1. IGotOut Silver badge

      I thought it was; when America shoots everyone takes cover...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        You'll be fine as long as you stay above foot level.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Its not just Apple

    HP's prohibiting anyone who isn't already there from traveling to China at all without a full risk assessment and approval from EH&S being done first. Unless you're Carl Icahnt or Xerox's board of puppets directors, then we'd just love it if you visit, and you don't have to come back, hell we'll pay for the trip.

    Seriously now, I'd imagine other big hardware companies are likely doing the same, we've all got to do business with China but its lunacy to not take some sort of precautions, especially considering Wuhan is basically their equivalent to Atlanta or Schiphol with the amount of people transiting it at any given time.

    1. big_D Silver badge

      Re: Its not just Apple

      And Webasto has 4 infected employees in Germany, they have stopped all travel and the HQ remains closed until the weekend - employees were allowed in to collect laptops yesterday.

      The rest of the employees were tested and no infection found. The 4 are in isolation in hospital and, according to the news yesterday evening, recovering well.

  3. Version 1.0 Silver badge

    Cheap phones soon?

    Want to buy a used phone anyone? Hopefully nobody sneezed into it.

    But the reality is that viruses spread quite quickly these days and this one's been out of the starting gate for a while so we'll probably see it everywhere soon. So far it doesn't look too risky - SARS was worse and the annual flu outbreak always has a toll. Fingers crossed but I'm not worried although over the years I've lost three friends to flu infections.

    1. Cynic_999

      Re: Cheap phones soon?

      It appears to kill only those who are already ill or have weak immune systems, which works out at about in 50 people infected.

      Incidentally, it would not only be *used* phones that could carry the virus. It's quite possible that an infected factory worker or delivery driver sneezed over a brand-new phone. In fact any package sent from an infected region since the outbreak could be carrying the virus, though the probability of getting infected from an inanimate object is probably far lower than getting it from a person.

      1. Tom Paine
        Boffin

        Re: Cheap phones soon?

        AIUI (based on an interview with a virologist on Radio 4 a few days ago), the virus is only viable for ~15 mins outside the body, eg., when sneezed onto a surface from which someone else contaminates themselves.

  4. M7S
    Gimp

    The old saying used to be that Macs couldnt get a virus

    Clearly now there is the chance that they might give the user one.

    Icon: Just in case you're worried about your protective face mask having the wrong kind of corners.

  5. Tom Paine
    Joke

    Masks

    I bought an expensive but very good 3M 7500 -series half-face mask with dual particulate and vapour filters, for DiY purposes*. You can't smell paint or cigarette smoke through it. Let's see how critical my GF is of my spending priorities when we're all on Wuhan-style lockdown! ;)

    * (When I got the very good Makita trimmer with interchangeable bases, cos at high speeds it makes very fine dust rather than chips, & it hangs in the air for ages.)

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