China extends COVID-19 lockdown, infections reach daily record – state

Pandemic lockdowns have spread across China, including in cities where factory workers clashed with police this week as the number of COVID-19 cases hit a daily record.

Residents of eight districts in Zhengzhou, home to 6.6 million people, were told to stay home for five days starting Thursday unless buying food or seeking medical care. With what was called, a daily mass test was ordered.

During clashes on Tuesday and Wednesday, Zhengzhou police beat workers protesting wage disputes at Apple’s largest iPhone factory in an industrial area near the city. Foxconn apologized on Thursday for what it called a “computer system entry error” and said it would guarantee the same wage as agreed and the official recruitment poster.

The number of new COVID cases increased by 31,444 in the past 24 hours, the National Health Commission said Thursday. This is the highest daily number since the coronavirus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

The daily case load is steadily increasing. This week, officials reported his first death from COVID-19 in China in six months, bringing the total to 5,232.

The number of cases and deaths is relatively low compared to the US and other countries, but China’s ruling Communist Party has announced a ‘zero COVID’ strategy aimed at isolating all cases and eliminating the virus entirely. continue to work on Most other governments have ended antiviral controls and now rely on vaccination and immunity from past infections to help prevent death and serious illness.

From the manufacturing hub of Guangzhou in the south to Beijing in the north, various forms of lockdown have been implemented, with measures particularly affecting blue-collar migrant workers. In many cases, residents say the regulations exceed what the government allows.

Guangzhou on Monday suspended access to the Baiyun district, home to 3.7 million inhabitants, while residents in some areas of Shijiazhuang, a city of 11 million people southwest of Beijing, face large-scale tests. I was told to stay home while they were being held.

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Beijing opened a hospital in the exhibition center. Access to Beijing Foreign Studies University was suspended after the virus case was discovered. Some shopping malls and office buildings were closed and access to some apartment buildings was blocked.

It suggests that some of these measures could be at least semi-permanent, with workers arranging 2-meter-high walls around a dilapidated, low-rise brick apartment building in Beijing’s Hongmiao Beili community. A (7ft) fence was being built.

Half a dozen people in protective clothing were stationed at the entrances to the lanes through the community, standing behind waist-high iron barriers normally used for crowd control.

Authorities have announced measures aimed at reducing disruptions to pandemic control by shortening quarantines and making other changes. Some Chinese expressed frustration over the apparent policy shift on social media and expressed confusion.

Although China’s borders remain largely closed, the government is “optimizing and facilitating immigration processes for executives and professionals of multinationals and foreign companies, as well as their families in China,” the foreign ministry said. spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily press conference. Thursday.

Mao said China will continue to improve various COVID protocols “according to science-based and targeted principles” to promote travel and cooperation and exchanges with other countries.

A key issue is concern about how vulnerable people are to viruses. Few Chinese have had COVID or been exposed to the virus, so only a small percentage can be considered to have built effective levels of antibodies to fight the virus.

China has over 92% overall vaccination coverage for coronavirus, with most people receiving at least one dose. But older Chinese, especially her 80+ Chinese, have not been vaccinated.

Governments are trying to contain the latest outbreak wave without shutting down factories and other economies as they did in early 2020. One tactic is to use “closed-loop management,” where workers live in factories without contact with the outside world. .

Foxconn, the world’s largest contract assembler of smartphones and other electronics, has canceled iPhone 14 orders after thousands of workers walked out of its Zhengzhou factory last month following complaints about unsafe working conditions. I’m having a hard time fulfilling

The protests on Tuesday and Wednesday were sparked by disagreements over payments to workers hired to replace retired workers. Some were arrested.

Foxconn denied an online comment that an employee infected with the virus was living in a dormitory at its Zhengzhou factory.It said the facility had been disinfected and passed government checks before the employee moved in.

© 2022 The Canadian Press