The Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone, which is home to Apple's largest iPhone manufacturing facility owned by contractor Foxconn, has declared the immediate imposition of a lockdown until November 9 in efforts to contain the spread of a Covid-19 outbreak. .
All residents of the area will be barred from exiting, while only authorized vehicles will be allowed to circulate, according to a notice from local authorities.
The note does not specify the application of the measures may to Foxconn, whose plant has operated in recent weeks amid the discontent of workers for the anti-Covid squeeze.
The Chinese authorities have imposed the blockade on 600,000 people in the area surrounding the largest iPhone factory in the world, affected in recent days by mass escapes of workers terrified by the idea of having to undergo new and grueling quarantines.
All but Covid prevention volunteers and essential workers "must not leave their residences except to receive Covid tests and emergency medical care," officials from the economic zone of Zhengzhou airport in central China said. , in a long note posted on the official WeChat account.
Some employees, among other things, vented on social networks for the precarious living conditions, deciding to leave the plant on foot after breaking through the containment barriers.
Foxconn, in the past,
China is the latest major economy to continue pursuing a 'zero-Covid' strategy, based on sudden lockdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines in efforts to throttle outbreaks.
Foxconn also announced last week that it has started daily nucleic acid tests for employees, kept in a "closed circuit bubble", offering incentives for staying at work: just yesterday the company announced a quadrupled bonus for employees who will help production in a phase of high demand for iPhones ahead of the end-of-year holidays.
China today reported more than 2,000 new home infections for the third consecutive day, in updates as of Tuesday.
Henan province has officially reported 359 Covid-19 infections,
with a jump compared to 104 on Monday.
Guangzhou South China Manufacturing Center also announced partial lockdowns in several districts this week in response to rising number of cases.
