Tech companies remain on edge Monday morning in mainland China amid conflicting reports about whether suppliers — most notably among them Foxconn — would resume production this week during the Wuhan coronavirus epidemic.

Foxconn, the world’s largest provider of manufacturing services, manufactures products for Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Inc., Google LLC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Inc., Huawei Electronics Co. Ltd., Intel Corp., Nintendo Co. Ltd., Sony Corp., Xiaomi Inc. and others.

The company, officially known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd., had shut most factories across China because of the Wuhan coronavirus. It was due to begin production again Monday morning, but no one is quite sure if that is happening.

Nikkei Asian Review reported Saturday that plans to resume production had been called off by Chinese authorities because of the coronavirus outbreak. But a conflicting report from Reuters Sunday said the plans to start production on Monday had not been blocked, at least in Shenzhen, where the company has a large number of plants.

The two different reports are not necessarily opposing. Foxconn has factories across China, so it may not have been given the all-clear to resume production in some provinces and cities while being given the green light, with conditions, to do so in Shenzhen.

Those conditions are said to include workers wearing masks, undergoing temperature checks and adhering to a dining system considered safe. That last refers to a recent finding that the Wuhan coronavirus can be spread by shared food, such as a family of nine who caught the virus after sharing a hotpot in Hong Kong.

Whether authorities are pushing ahead with allowing Foxconn to reopen on financial concerns rather than consideration of the health situation is another matter. Guangdong Province, where Shenzhen is located, has 1,131 confirmed cases of the coronavirus as of 8 p.m. EST. Some unconfirmed reports had the city going into quarantine, but that has not yet occurred. Instead, Hong Kong has imposed quarantine rules on all arrivals from mainland China, since most cross into the city from Shenzhen.

Although major companies not resuming full production could result in shortages across major tech industries, the fear of the virus is also resulting in secondary affects. For one, the Mobile World Congress 2020 in Barcelona scheduled for Feb. 24 has seen more companies pull out of the event.

Following LG Electronics Co. Ltd. and ZTE Corp., which pulled out a week ago, Amazon.com Inc., Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson and Nvidia Corp. have joined in withdrawing from the event. Amazon said in a statement that the reason was “the outbreak and continued concerns about novel coronavirus.”

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., the world’s largest smartphone maker, is still intending to attend the event but is reported to be considering scaling back its plans.

The GSM Association, faced with a potential crisis, has responded by banning people from China’s Hubei Province from attending the event. The move is at best virtue-signaling given that most of the province has been under quarantine since Jan. 23.

Anyone from Hubei who was out of the province before that date would have been confirmed to have been infected by now or not, since the Wuhan coronavirus has an incubation period estimated to be two to 11 days. So banning people from Hubei will not do a single thing to keep MWC attendees safe.

Photo: Duncan Riley