Covid-19: Pandemic lockdown spreads across China

REUTERS/Thomas Peter

A pandemic lockdown is spreading across China as the number of Covid-19 cases reaches a daily record and workers clash with police.

Residents of eight districts in Zhengzhou, home to 6.6 million people, have been told to stay at home for five days starting Thursday, except to buy food or seek medical treatment.

The city government declared a "war of annihilation" against the virus and ordered daily mass testing.

The largest iPhone factory, which is located in an industrial area outside of the city, was the scene of clashes on Tuesday and Wednesday during which Zhengzhou police beat workers who were protesting a pay dispute.

The National Health Commission reported that there were 31,444 more new Covid cases in the preceding day. Since the coronavirus was discovered for the first time in the city of Wuhan in central China in late 2019, this represents the highest daily figure.

The number of cases handled every day has been rising. China's first Covid-19 deaths in six months were recorded this week, raising the total to 5,232, according to the authorities.

Even though there are fewer instances and fatalities in China than in the US and other nations, the Communist Party in power is nevertheless dedicated to a "zero-Covid" strategy that strives to isolate every case and eradicate the virus completely.

In order to help prevent deaths and serious sickness, the majority of other governments have stopped using anti-virus measures and now rely on vaccinations and immunity from prior illnesses.

Businesses and residential areas are under various sorts of lockdowns from Beijing in the north to the manufacturing hub of Guangzhou in the south, measures that notably affect migrant blue-collar employees.

Residents claim that the limits frequently go beyond what the federal government permits.

Access to Guangzhou's 3.7 million-person Baiyun district was blocked on Monday, while some inhabitants of Shijiazhuang, an 11 million-person metropolis southwest of Beijing, were advised to stay inside while mass testing was taking place.

A hospital has established in a convention centre in Beijing.

After a viral infection was discovered at the Beijing International Studies University, city officials closed some malls and office buildings and barred entrance to some apartment complexes.

Workers in Beijing's Hongmiao Beili neighbourhood were creating a 7-foot-high fence around the old, low-rise brick apartment buildings, which hinted that some of those precautions would be at least temporary.

A lane running through the neighbourhood was guarded by six people in hazmat suits, who were positioned in front of steel barricades that are often used to manage crowds.

By shortening quarantines and making other changes, the authorities had announced plans to try to minimise disruptions from pandemic restrictions. On social media, several Chinese individuals have vented their irritation and confusion about the seeming policy ambiguity.

Concern over how susceptible people are to the virus is a major problem. Few Chinese have acquired effective levels of virus-fighting antibodies because so few have contracted Covid-19 or ever been exposed to the virus.

More than 92% of the population in China has gotten at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. But much fewer senior Chinese citizens, especially those over 80, have received the injections.

The government is attempting to stop the most recent breakouts without closing down businesses and the rest of the economy like it did in the first few months of 2020. One strategy is "closed-loop management," in which employees are confined to their workplaces and have no communication with the outside world.

The largest contract manufacturer of smartphones and other electronics in the world, Foxconn, is having trouble fulfilling orders for the iPhone 14 after thousands of workers left the Zhengzhou facility last month over concerns about unsafe working conditions.

Disagreements over the salary of personnel hired to fill the void created by the departing employees served as the catalyst for the protests on Tuesday and Wednesday. Police and workers got into a fight, and several got hurt. A few were detained.

Foxconn, a Taiwanese company, claimed that it has "always met" its financial responsibilities under its contracts.

The business disputed claims made in online comments that workers at the Zhengzhou factory were infected and lived in dorms. It claimed that before staff moved in, the facilities had been cleaned and approved by the authorities.