Some districts of China’s southern tech hub Shenzhen yesterday extended curbs on public activities, dining out and entertainment venues, but city officials stopped short of a full lockdown as they try to rein in rising COVID-19 cases.
Restrictions in the central business district of Futian and Longhua — home to a major campus of Apple iPhone assembler Foxconn (富士康), have been extended until tomorrow, while residents in several areas across the city were asked to work from home if possible.
Most of Shenzhen’s nearly 18 million residents are now under COVID-19 controls amid the city’s most serious outbreak since spring. However, unlike its swift decision in March to lock down the city to fight community infections, Shenzhen has taken a more considered approach in the current flare-up since late last month.
Photo: Reuters
Curbing activities of tens of millions of people intensifies the challenges for China to cushion the economic impact of its “zero COVID” policy that has kept its borders mostly shut to international visitors, and made it an outlier as other countries learn to live with the virus.
On Thursday evening, officials sought to quell rumors that the city would undergo a full lockdown as it did for a week in March, and said people could leave and return to their homes with a 24-hour proof of testing.
So far, authorities have largely avoided shutting down offices and factories.
“We need to get the virus under control, we can’t just give up like some countries,” said a woman surnamed Tang, who has been volunteering to help food deliveries arrive at a locked down compound in Futian, Shenzhen’s most severely hit district.
“But I don’t know when it will end; it’s really hurting businesses,” she said.
Shenzhen officials yesterday 87 new local cases for Thursday, up from 62 a day earlier. Of those, eight were outside quarantine areas.
Meanwhile, the megacity of Chengdu went into lockdown late on Thursday with mass testing for COVID-19 planned through the weekend. Uncertainty remained whether the lockdown would be lifted after the testing ends tomorrow.
The city of about 21 million people and capital of Sichuan Province reported 150 new local cases for Thursday, official data showed yesterday, compared with 157 infections a day earlier.
In Chengdu, non-essential employees were told to work from home. Industrial firms engaged in key manufacturing and able to manage on closed campuses were exempted from work-from-home requirements.
Toyota Motor’s Chengdu plant, which has an annual production capacity of 105,000 vehicles, is “operating normally”, and inside a closed loop at the request of the Sichuan government, a company official told Reuters.
Sweden’s Volvo Cars, majority owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (吉利控股集團), has shut its plant in Chengdu, a company spokesperson said.
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