iPhone Supplier Foxconn Halts Operations in China’s Shenzhen After Govt Announces Lockdown

Everyone in Shenzhen, a finance and technology center that abuts Hong Kong, will undergo three rounds of testing after 60 new cases were reported Sunday.

Covid Surge in China: The unprecedented spike in the covid cases in China has forced the authorities to reimpose stern restrictions which were lifted earlier owing dip in the cases. The government has also ordered a lockdown in Shenzhen forcing the major Apple supplier Foxconn to suspend its operations in the tech hub. “Meanwhile, we have required all the employees to have Covid PCR test on top of existing prevention measures to ensure the health and safety of our employees,” the company said.

It stated that the decision has been made to comply with the local government’s new Covid-19 policy. News agency Reuters quoted company officials as saying that Foxconn and its subsidiaries’ operations in Shenzhen would be suspended for the first half of the week.

The company has two major plants in Longhua Science Park and Guanlan Science Park in Shenzhen.

One of the people said the government was allowing companies to operate if they could create a “closed management” system where employees would live and work in a bubble. Such a system was in place during the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Everyone in Shenzhen, a finance and technology center that abuts Hong Kong, will undergo three rounds of testing after 60 new cases were reported Sunday. All businesses except those that supply food, fuel and other necessities were ordered to close or work from home.

Case numbers in China’s latest infection surge are low compared with other countries and with Hong Kong, which reported more than 32,000 on Sunday. But mainland authorities are enforcing a “zero tolerance” strategy and have locked down entire cities to find and isolate every infected person.

Shenzhen is home to some of China’s most prominent companies, including telecom equipment maker Huawei Technologies Ltd., electric car brand BYD Auto, Ping An Insurance Co. and Tencent Holding, operator of the popular WeChat message service.

On the mainland, the government reported 1,938 new cases, more than triple Saturday’s total.

About three-quarters, or 1,412 cases, were in Jilin province in the northeast, where the industrial metropolis of Changchun was placed under lockdown on Friday and families were told to stay home after a spate of infections.

China, where the first coronavirus cases were detected in late 2019 in the central city of Wuhan, has reported a total of 4,636 deaths on the mainland out of 115,466 confirmed cases since the pandemic started.

In Shanghai, China’s most populous city with 24 million people, the number of cases in the latest surge rose by 15 to 432. The city government called on the public not to leave unless necessary. It said intercity bus service would be suspended starting on Sunday.

“Those who come or return to Shanghai must have a negative nucleic acid test report within 48 hours before arrival,” said a city health agency statement.