China imposes COVID lockdown on 600,000 people around iPhone plant - Medical Xpress

Chinese authorities imposed lockdowns connected 600,000 radical successful the country surrounding the world's largest iPhone mill connected Wednesday aft workers fled to debar a coronavirus outbreak and the resulting restrictions.

All radical but COVID-prevention volunteers and indispensable workers "must not permission their residences but to person COVID tests and exigency medical treatment", officials from cardinal China's Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone said.

The determination comes aft images emerged connected Chinese societal media past week showing radical breaking retired of the facility, which is tally by Taiwanese tech elephantine Foxconn and makes products for Apple.

Some employees were complaining online of mediocre conditions and having to fly the mill connected ft to debar COVID transport curbs. Foxconn employs hundreds of thousands of workers successful Zhengzhou.

China is the past large system committed to a zero-COVID strategy, persisting with drawback lockdowns, wide investigating and lengthy quarantines successful a bid to stamp retired emerging outbreaks.

But caller variants person tested section officials' quality to snuff retired flare-ups faster than they tin spread, causing overmuch of the state to unrecorded nether an ever-changing mosaic of COVID curbs.

The territory successful Zhengzhou metropolis said Wednesday that each businesses would beryllium required to enactment from home, with lone "key enterprises" allowed to proceed operating, without specifying which businesses fell nether that category.

Only aesculapian vehicles and those delivering essentials are allowed connected the streets.

The district's much than 600,000 residents volition person to instrumentality nucleic acerb tests each day, the section authorities said, informing that it would "resolutely ace down connected each kinds of violations".
—'Closed loop'-

Foxconn told AFP connected Wednesday its Zhengzhou parkland "maintains closed-loop operation", without providing details.

The institution said astatine the play it was investigating employees regular and keeping them successful the "closed loop", arsenic good arsenic offering transport to those who wanted to leave, aft the videos connected societal media showed employees walking down motorways with their suitcases.

Local governments successful the country surrounding Zhengzhou metropolis person asked Foxconn workers to registry with authorities if they instrumentality location and to implicit respective days of quarantine upon arrival.

The institution besides said connected Tuesday it would quadruple bonuses for employees consenting to stay astatine the mill during the outbreak.

Chinese social media users accused Zhengzhou authorities connected Wednesday of "performatively" lifting COVID restrictions aft the metropolis announced a time earlier it would "restore mean accumulation and life".

"In the greeting you assistance the lockdown, past astatine nighttime you fastener down again, what are you trying to do?" Weibo idiosyncratic Taodixing asked.

China reported much than 2,000 caller home infections connected Wednesday for the 3rd time successful a row.

Henan province, wherever Zhengzhou is located, officially reported 359 COVID-19 infections connected Wednesday, a leap from Tuesday's 104.

The confederate Chinese manufacturing hub of Guangzhou besides announced partial lockdowns successful respective districts this week successful effect to rising lawsuit numbers.

© 2022 AFP