Apple will reopen some stores in Beijing from Feb. 14 with reduced opening hours, according to a notice at the company's website.

Its five stores in Beijing will open from Feb. 14 between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., according to Apple’s website, shorter than its usual hours of 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Stores in cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen remain shut.

“In view of public health and prevention, some of our retail stores are temporarily closed,” it said in a notice on its website, which also asked customers visiting outlets that were open to wear a mask and cooperate with temperature taking.

Many of its other Apple stores in mainland China will remain shut as the country continues to battle a coronavirus outbreak.

The iPhone manufacturer said on Feb. 8 it was extending its retail store closures in China, even as it worked toward opening its corporate offices and contact centers.

Its decision to shut its stores came after local authorities across China imposed travel curbs and warned residents to stay away from public areas in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, online reports from Digitimes.com note that the impacts of the coronavirus will cause disruption to the standard next-gen iPhone manufacturing schedule, although it is unlikely to mean Apple will need to delay the usual September launch timeframe for the iPhone 12 series.

Demand for the A14 chip is also said to be high, with orders more than 50% higher than the equivalent period for the A13 chips. Digitimes notes that this is a result of Apple’s aggressive moves into rolling out 5G on its phones.

Reports indicate that Apple is planning to release more new iPhone models this year than it ever has done before, and 5G capability will be pervasive across the lineup.

There may also be new iPads later this year that also feature the A14 chip. It is also likely that the 2021 ‘iPhone SE’ revision will also sport 5G networking.

In related news, Foxconn, the main iPhone assembler, has denied a report which claimed to describe its iPhone production targets as it struggles to deal with disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak. A Reuters report claimed that Foxconn hoped to resume half of its production in China by month-end.

Foxconn has today issued a statement that the report was ‘not factual.’

“Recently, Reuters reports on the group’s overall resumption schedule for the mainland China plants are not factual, and Hon Hai hereby clarifies it,” Foxconn said in the statement.

“In the past, the aforementioned media’s reports related to the group’s mainland China plants resumption are mostly not factual,” it said, adding that the reports have caused “misunderstandings and difficulties for employees, investors and the general public.”