Widespread testing is crucial for tracking the spread of COVID-19. As of April 19, the United States alone had performed almost 997 million tests for COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic, the highest number of any country.
SHANGHAI—China’s biggest microchip producer, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., and Apple Inc. supplier Pegatron
Corp. continue to operate factories here during the city’s most-recent COVID-19 lockdown by isolating workers and running a closed-off procedure allowed by local authorities.
DETROIT—Production at North American automotive factories is getting back on schedule after last week’s truck-convoy protests on the Amassador Bridge disrupted the flow of goods between between the United States and Canada.
My wife works for one of the largest printers in the country. From August through October last year, nine of her co-workers died of COVID-19. All were shop-floor personnel who did not have the luxury of working from home. One was just 28 years old. None were vaccinated, despite ample monetary incentives to do so. Alarmed, the CEO held a companywide meeting via Zoom, begging employees to get vaccinated.
CHAPEL HILL, NC—Scientists at Stanford University and the University of North Carolina have created a 3D-printed vaccine patch that reportedly provides greater protection than a typical vaccine shot.
FRANKFURT—Preliminary data by the International Federation of Robotics shows a 19 percent sales increase of industrial robots to China in 2020, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, nearly 167,000 industrial robots were delivered there last year.
SCOTTSDALE, AZ—The Sustainability Consortium recently reported that its THESIS assessments of product manufacturers show a 38 percent improvement since 2016, indicating that companies continued to pursue sustainability improvements during the 2020 global pandemic.
If there's a silver lining to the COVID pandemic, it might be that it encourages U.S. manufacturers to consider reshoring. Last year's shortages of personal protective equipment, ventilators, pharmaceutical ingredients and other medical products opened a lot of eyes in board rooms and in Washington.
Since 2010, more than 4,700 companies have brought back some or all of their manufacturing operations and sourcing to the U.S. Despite COVID-19, reshoring was up in 2020.
