An epidemic center was discovered in Zhengzhou in central China on the industrial site of the Foxconn group. Images on social media showed many workers running away from the factory over the weekend.
Chinese authorities on Wednesday decreed the containment of the area around the largest iPhone factory in the world, after the flight of employees worried by the discovery of an outbreak of Covid-19. The economic zone around Zhengzhou airport (center), where the factory managed by the Taiwanese group Foxconn is located, will have to observe a seven-day confinement, according to an official press release.
The factory, which employs more than 200,000 people, has been affected since mid-October by positive cases of Covid-19. The site is located some 600 km southwest of Beijing. According to analysts quoted in the press, the industrial complex, which has three factories and employs around 350,000 people, assembles around 80% of the iPhone 14, the latest model from the American giant Apple.
Footage on social media showed scores of workers fleeing the factory over the weekend, some jumping over a fence, and walking long distances home. Videos of employees complaining about their working conditions and a lack of protection against the virus have also been shared.
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As of this Wednesday, the more than 600,000 inhabitants of the economic zone “should not leave their homeunless there is a compelling reason, local authorities said. Only the “essential businesseswill be able to continue to operate, the others having to establish teleworking.
Authorities warned that they would be “uncompromising towards any type of violationof containment. China is the last major economy to apply a zero Covid policy, which results in repeated confinements, quasi-compulsory PCR tests several times a week and the placement in quarantine of people from risk areas.
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“Long battle” against the Covid
To retain its employees, Foxconn announced Tuesday to quadruple the daily bonus for attendance at work, or 400 yuan (about 55 euros). Staff will receive an additional bonus if they are present at the factory for at least 15 days in November. This bonus can reach 15,000 yuan (2075 euros) in the event of presence for the entire month, said the Taiwanese company.
Foxconn admitted to facing a “long battle“against the Covid. The group did not specify the number of employees who tested positive or were confined to its Zhengzhou site. A factory manager, however, told the weekly China Newsweek that no serious case had been recorded and that the situation was for the moment “controllable“.
Although not high, the number of Covid cases in China has been on the rise in recent days. On Wednesday, more than 2,000 new positive cases were announced in the territory for the third day in a row.
In the far south, the semi-autonomous territory of Macao announced on Tuesday a general screening of its 680,000 inhabitants after the discovery of a handful of cases. One of the city’s casinos has also been confined. In Canton (south), partial confinements were decreed on Monday in several districts. At the other end of the country, outbreaks have been detected in towns in the northeast, near the border with Russia and North Korea.
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