By Ebi Kesiena
World’s largest iPhone factory experienced disruption as millions of people in China are put under tight Covid restrictions on Wednesday with sporadic outbreaks across the country prompting business closures.
China is the last major economy welded to a zero-covid strategy, persisting with snap lockdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines in a bid to keep infections to a minimum.
But fast-spreading virus variants have challenged that approach in recent months, with shutdowns and an ever-shifting patchwork of curbs sparking public exasperation and rare pockets of protest.
According to the National Health Commission, the world’s most populous nation recorded 1,241 new local cases on Wednesday, the majority of which displayed no symptoms. But they include an outbreak at a factory in the central city of Zhengzhou that employs around 300,000 people and is known as the largest producer of iPhones in the world.
Foxconn Technology Group, which runs the facility, acknowledged the flare-up on Wednesday but said “operation and productions is relatively stable”.
The Taiwanese electronics stated that Health and safety measures for employees are being maintained, maker said, adding that it was providing the necessary guarantees for livelihoods, including material supplies, psychological comfort and responsive feedback.
The company did not specify how many staff were affected by the outbreak but said it was a “small number” and that unsubstantiated online rumours of tens of thousands of infections were “patently false”.
“At present, the epidemic prevention work in Zhengzhou is progressing steadily, and the impact is controllable,”
“The operating outlook for this quarter remains unchanged,” the statement said.
There were signs of further tightening in Beijing, with the Capital’s Universal Resort theme park saying on Wednesday that it had “closed temporarily to implement epidemic control requirements”.
“We will continue to evaluate the impact on operations and work hard to restore them as soon as possible”, the resort said on its official Weibo social media account, without giving a timeline for reopening.
Chinese authorities have shown little willingness to ease Covid measures even as the number of daily cases has diminished, with Japanese investment bank Nomura estimating this week that more than 200 million people are under some form of enhanced restrictions.
In the northwestern city of Xining home to 2.5 million residents complained on social media about grinding stay-home measures, with some making accusations of unverifiable underreported cases.
