BEIJING — The government’s restrictions on Zhengzhou in an effort to combat the Covid-19 outbreak will make it a largely closed city for five days as officials resort to tighter curbs to quell the rise of the virus.
In a series of events which is euphemistic for lockdown, mobility controls are being exercised in the two urban main zones of Zhengzhou from Friday to Sunday because of the rise in virus cases. The city reported 996 infections on Wednesday and reported 813 a day before that.
The new restrictions were announced after hundreds of lower-level factory employees streamed out of dormitories earlier in the day. Employees at Apple’s Foxconn Technology Group factory clashed with white-clad security personnel, according to videos from the scene, over unpaid wages and fears about virus infections.
According to the government’s Wednesday night directive, people living in high-risk areas must stay at home. It is advised for others to avoid leaving their residences or compounds unless necessary and that daily PCR tests are conducted.
Ronnie Cai, 31, lives in one of the districts that are heavily restricted. He said he had heard there were more strict restrictions coming before the announcement.
Cai said, “I just don’t understand how, after fighting the virus for a month already, we can get it under control in just five days.” He’s been eating food he stockpiled earlier and has been told that he can go out to buy food at certain times. But he hasn’t been given any guidance on how it will work yet.
According to the government, there won’t be any closures in eight out of the nine districts. This leaves one district open to business as usual.
There’s an ongoing lockdown at the factory, which means movement restrictions are in place. Company-wide, workers are restricted to staying in their bedrooms and the production line. In fact, they can’t interact with anyone outside of the plant. The reported closed-loop system helps businesses maintain production during lockdowns, but it means employees have no contact with family and friends.
China’s latest moves mark a shift back towards an earlier, more aggressive approach to the Covid issue.
In a week or so since China’s National Health Commission issued a new 20-point playbook for handling Covid with fewer disruptions, surging infections in China have forced cities to revert to harsher measures. Shijiazhuang, which had eased testing less than two weeks ago, had to backtrack within a few days and resume locking down the city.
“Elimination fight”
One of the mandates set forth by the Zhengzhou society will be to keep non-essential vehicles off the road. The policies to remove Covid in Zhengzhou will begin with a five-day elimination battle, ensuring nobody is left out in any mass testing effort, according to a state-run report found by Zhengzhou Daily.
In the past, the Chinese National Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention criticized blanket shutdowns over more precise curbs. The local health bureau has a new strategy that goes beyond this traditional tactic.
It’s difficult to use a lighter, more targeted approach for Covid since the goal is still to stop outbreaks. The virus has become more contagious, which makes China’s Covid Zero policy – used in Wuhan successfully during the initial outbreak – virtually impossible without sweeping restrictions.
“As long as the central task of Covid Zero is to contain an outbreak,” said Neo Wang, Evercore ISI managing director for China Research, “it won’t be hard to resist excess restrictions,” Wang added that the new measures seem justified. “That means the government will continue prioritizing the protection of key industries and supply chains.”
