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World

Factbox: Spain, Malaysia add to restrictions on travellers from China

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Dec 30 (Reuters) – Authorities around the world are imposing or considering curbs on travellers from China as COVID-19 case there surge following its relaxation of “zero-COVID” rules.

They cite a lack of information from China on variants and are concerned about a wave of infections. China has rejected criticism of its COVID data and said it expects future mutations to be potentially more transmissible but less severe.

Below is a list of regulations for travellers from China.

PLACES IMPOSING CURBS

UNITED STATES

The United States will impose mandatory COVID-19 tests on travellers from China beginning on Jan. 5. All air passengers aged two and older will require a negative result from a test no more than two days before departure from China, Hong Kong or Macau. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said U.S. citizens should also reconsider travel to China, Hong Kong and Macau.

INDIA

The country has mandated a COVID-19 negative test report for travellers arriving from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Thailand, the health minister said. Passengers from those countries will be quarantined if they show symptoms or test positive.

JAPAN

Japan will require a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival for travellers from mainland China. Those who test positive will be required to quarantine for seven days. New border measures for China will go into effect at midnight on Dec. 30. The government will also limit requests from airlines to increase flights to China.

ITALY

Italy has ordered COVID-19 antigen swabs and virus sequencing for all travellers from China. Milan’s main airport, Malpensa, had already started testing passengers arriving from Beijing and Shanghai. “The measure is essential to ensure surveillance and detection of possible variants of the virus in order to protect the Italian population,” Health Minister Orazio Schillaci said.

SPAIN

Spain will require a negative COVID-19 test or a full course of vaccination against the disease upon arrival for travellers from China, the country’s Health Minister Carolina Darias said.

MALAYSIA

Malaysia will screen all inbound travellers for fever and test wastewater from aircraft arriving from China for COVID-19, Minister Zaliha Mustafa said in a statement.

TAIWAN

Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Centre said all passengers on direct flights from China, as well as by boat at two offshore islands, will have to take PCR tests upon arrival, starting on Jan. 1.

SOUTH KOREA

South Korea will require travellers from China to provide negative COVID test results before departure, South Korea’s News1 news agency reported on Friday, after Beijing’s decision to lift stringent zero-COVID policies.

PLACES MONITORING SITUATION

AUSTRALIA

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia was monitoring the situation in respect of China “as we continue to monitor the impact of COVID here in Australia as well as around the world.”

PHILIPPINES

The Southeast Asian country is being “very cautious” and could impose measures such as testing requirements on visitors from China, but not an outright ban, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said.

BRITAIN

Britain is reviewing whether to impose restrictions on people arriving from China, but has no plans to do so, officials said.

Defence minister Ben Wallace said an update was possible in the coming days, but another minister said that a review of evidence so far did not suggest any concerning new variant that would lead the government to impose restrictions.

Compiled by Bernard Orr; Editing by Gerry Doyle, John Stonestreet and Barbara Lewis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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U.S. weighs new COVID rules for travelers from China

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Dec 27 (Reuters) – The U.S. government may impose new COVID-19 measures on travelers to the United States from China over concerns about the “lack of transparent data” coming from Beijing, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.

The move comes after Japan, India and Malaysia announced stepped up rules on travelers from China in the last 24 hours, citing a rise in infections there.

Japan has said it would require a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival for travelers from the China. Malaysia put in place additional tracking and surveillance measures.

“There are mounting concerns in the international community on the ongoing COVID-19 surges in China and the lack of transparent data, including viral genomic sequence data, being reported from the PRC,” the officials said, using the initials of the People’s Republic of China.

Some hospitals and funeral homes in China have been overwhelmed as the virus spreads largely unchecked across the country of 1.4 billion people.

Official statistics, however, showed only one COVID death in the seven days to Monday, fuelling doubts among health experts and residents about the government’s data. The numbers are inconsistent with the experience of much less populous countries after they re-opened.

China said on Monday it would stop requiring inbound travelers to go into quarantine starting from Jan. 8 in a major step towards easing curbs on its borders, which have been largely shut since 2020.

Reporting by Steve Holland, writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Lincoln Feast.

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Hong Kong will re-open China border as COVID surges

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SHANGHAI, Dec 24 (Reuters) – China, grappling with a new wave of COVID-19 infections, took another step towards loosening its pandemic-related restrictions on Saturday when Hong Kong’s leader announced it would aim to re-open its borders with the mainland by mid-January.

Speaking at a news conference upon returning from Beijing, Hong Kong Chief executive John Lee said authorities would aim to “gradually, orderly, and fully” re-open all entry points between the two sides, and coordinate with the government of nearby Shenzhen to manage the flow of people.

At present, individuals hoping to enter the mainland through Hong Kong can only do so through the city’s airport or two checkpoints – Shenzhen Bay or the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge.

Entrants into the mainland must also undergo a period of hotel quarantine before they can move about freely.

Hong Kong and Beijing shut their borders in early 2020 as COVID first surfaced and they have remained closed since then, as China has capped inbound travellers as part of its strict “zero-COVID” policy.

Beijing loosened China’s domestic zero-COVID restrictions earlier this month, dropping mandatory testing requirements and travel restrictions.

While many have welcomed the easing, families and the health system were unprepared for the resulting surge of infections. Hospitals are scrambling for beds and blood, pharmacies for drugs and authorities are racing to build clinics.

COVID CHRISTMAS

In advance of Christmas, Shanghai authorities urged residents to stay at home this weekend to curb the virus’s spread. The holiday is not traditionally celebrated in China, but it is common for young couples and some families to spend the holiday together.

Despite those warnings, an annual Christmas market held at the Bund, a commercial area, was packed with attendees.

“My friends are basically all positive, and all have basically recovered,” said Liu Yang, 23, an IT worker attending the market.

“We wanted to take advantage of Christmas, and it’s the weekend, we wanted to walk around and enjoy the air, so we came here.”

Still, the spread of Omicron is dampening festivities for other retailers and eateries.

Many Shanghai restaurants have cancelled Christmas parties normally held for regulars, while hotels have capped reservations due to staff shortages, said Jacqueline Mocatta, who works in the hospitality industry.

“There’s only a certain amount of customers we can accept given our manpower, with a majority of team members who are unwell at the moment,” she said.

SCEPTICISM ABOUT OFFICIAL DATA

Infections in China are likely more than a million a day with deaths at more than 5,000 a day, British-based health data firm Airfinity said this week, describing the estimates as a “stark contrast” to official data.

China’s national health authority on Saturday reported 4,128 daily symptomatic COVID-19 infections, and no deaths for a fourth consecutive day.

Bloomberg News reported on Friday that nearly 37 million people may have been infected with COVID on a single day this past week, citing estimates from the government’s top health authority. Authorities did not comment on the report.

The emergency hotline in Taiyuan in the northern province of Shanxi was receiving over 4,000 calls a day, a local media outlet said on Saturday.

Taiyuan authorities urged residents to call the number only for medical emergencies, saying guidance about COVID “does not fall within the scope of the hotline.”

A health official in Qingdao said the port city was seeing roughly 500,000 daily infections, media reported on Friday. In the southern city of Dongguan, a major manufacturing hub, daily infections are reaching 250,000-300,000, local authorities told domestic media.

The surge has strained the medical sector, in particular blood repositories, as a lack of donors has caused reserves to dwindle.

On Saturday, China’s National Health Commission said in a statement that individuals who suffered mild or ordinary COVID-19 symptoms can safely donate blood a few days after their symptoms subside.

In Wuhan, the central city where COVID emerged three years ago, media reported on Friday that the local blood repository had just 4,000 units, enough to last two days. The repository called on people to “roll up their sleeves and donate blood.”

Reporting by Josh Horwitz and Jing Bian in Shanghai; additional reporting by Xihao Jiang in Shanghai; Editing by William Mallard and Philippa Fletcher

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Chinese cities ease curbs but full zero-COVID exit seen some way off

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BEIJING, Dec 4 (Reuters) – More Chinese cities including Urumqi in the far west announced an easing of coronavirus curbs on Sunday as China tries to make its zero-COVID policy more targeted and less onerous after unprecedented protests against restrictions last weekend.

Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region and where the protests first erupted, will reopen malls, markets, restaurants and other venues from Monday, authorities said, ending strict lockdowns after months.

There was no sign of any significant unrest this weekend, although police were out in force in the Liangmaqiao area of Beijing and in Shanghai around Wulumuqi Road, which is named after Urumqi. Both sites saw protests a week ago.

A deadly fire last month in Urumqi sparked dozens of protests against COVID curbs in over 20 cities after some social media users said victims had been unable to escape the blaze because their apartment building was locked down. Authorities denied that.

The protests were an unprecedented show of civil disobedience in mainland China since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012.

In the days since, numerous cities have announced the easing of lockdowns, testing requirements, and quarantine rules.

Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, who oversees COVID efforts, said last week the ability of the virus to cause disease was weakening – a change in messaging that aligns with what many health authorities around the world have said for more than a year.

China is set to further announce a nationwide easing of testing requirements as well as allowing positive cases and close contacts to isolate at home under certain conditions, people familiar with the matter told Reuters last week.

RULES LIFTED

For the time being, steps to ease restrictions have varied across the country.

People in Zhengzhou, the central city home to the world’s largest iPhone plant which was last month rocked by violent unrest, will no longer have to show COVID test results to take public transport, taxis and to visit “public areas”, authorities said on Sunday.

Karaoke bars, beauty salons, internet cafes and other indoor venues can reopen but must check for a negative 48-hour COVID test result.

In Shanghai from Monday a negative COVID test will no longer be required to take public transport and visit parks, authorities announced on Sunday.

Elsewhere both Nanning, capital of the southern region of Guangxi and Wuhan, the central city where the pandemic began in 2019, on Sunday cancelled a requirement for a negative COVID test to take the subway.

Guangzhou’s Haizhu district, which experienced violent clashes last month, said Sunday that henceforth it advises people with no COVID symptoms not to get tested for the virus unless they belong to certain special groups such as frontline workers, or those with a red or yellow code.

On Saturday in Beijing, authorities said the purchase of fever, cough and sore throat medicines no longer required registration. The restriction had been imposed because authorities believed people were using the medication to hide COVID infections.

Authorities in various districts in the capital have in recent days announced that people who test positive for the virus can quarantine at home.

Some inconsistencies as the restrictions are eased have angered people, including a requirement in some places for a negative COVID test even though mass testing centres were closing.

In Beijing and Wuhan that caused lengthy queues at the few remaining testing booths.

“Are they stupid or just plain mean?” one social media user asked. “We shouldn’t shut down COVID testing stations until we get rid of the COVID test pass.”

New daily case numbers dropped nationwide to 31,824, authorities said on Sunday, which may be due in part to fewer people being tested. Authorities also reported two new COVID deaths.

‘PREPARING TO EXIT ZERO-COVID’

Xi’s zero-COVID policy has had a devastating impact on the world’s second-largest economy and roiled global supply chains.

China argues the policy, which has all-but-shut its borders to travel, is necessary to save lives and prevent the health care system from being overwhelmed.

Despite the easing of restrictions, many experts said China was unlikely to begin significant reopening before March at the earliest, given the need to ramp up vaccinations, especially among its vast elderly population.

“Although there have been quite a few local changes to COVID policies lately, we do not interpret them as China abandoning zero-COVID policy just yet,” Goldman Sachs said in a note on Sunday.

“Rather, we see them as clear evidence of the Chinese government preparing for an exit, and trying to minimize the economic and social cost of COVID control in the meantime. The preparations may last a few months and there are likely to be challenges along the way.”

Estimates for how many deaths China could see if it pivots to a full reopening have ranged from 1.3 million to more than 2 million, though some researchers said the death toll could be reduced sharply if there was a focus on vaccination.

Authorities recently announced they would speed up COVID vaccinations for elderly people but many remain reluctant to get the jab.

“Some people have doubts about the safety and effectiveness of the country’s new coronavirus vaccine,” an article in the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily said on Sunday.

“Experts say this perception is wrong,” it said, adding that domestically made vaccines were safe.

Foreign COVID vaccines are not approved in China and Xi is unwilling to change that, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said on Saturday.

Reporting by Martin Quin Pollard; Additional reporting by the Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Tony Munroe, Lincoln Feast, Kirsten Donovan

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China reports new daily record COVID cases, curbs tighten across country

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SHANGHAI, Nov 25 (Reuters) – China on Friday reported another record high of daily COVID-19 infections, as cities across the country enforce measures and curbs to control outbreaks.

Thursday’s new local COVID-19 infections set a daily record for a second consecutive day, beating a figure set in mid-April, when the commercial hub of Shanghai was crippled by a citywide lockdown of its 25 million residents that lasted two months.

Excluding imported infections, China reported 32,695 new local cases on Thursday, of which 3,041 were symptomatic and 29,654 were asymptomatic, up from 31,444 a day earlier.

Big outbreaks are numerous and far-flung, with the southern city of Guangzhou and southwestern Chongqing recording the bulk, although hundreds of new infections have been reported daily in cities such as Chengdu, Jinan, Lanzhou, Xian and Wuhan.

Cases quadrupled in Shijiazhuang to 3,197 on Thursday from the previous day.

China’s capital, Beijing, reported 424 symptomatic and 1,436 asymptomatic cases on Thursday, compared with 509 symptomatic and 1,139 asymptomatic cases the previous day, local government data showed.

Financial hub Shanghai reported nine symptomatic cases and 77 asymptomatic cases on Thursday, compared with nine symptomatic cases and 58 asymptomatic cases a day before, the local health authority reported.

Guangzhou, a city in the south of nearly 19 million people, reported 257 new locally transmitted symptomatic and 7,267 asymptomatic cases yesterday, compared with 428 symptomatic and 7,192 asymptomatic cases a day before, local authorities said.

Chongqing reported 258 new symptomatic locally transmitted COVID-19 infections and 6,242 asymptomatic cases for Thursday, compared with 409 symptomatic and 7,437 asymptomatic cases the previous day, local government authorities said.

Reporting by Shanghai and Beijing newsroom; Writing by Bernard Orr; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Gerry Doyle

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China widens COVID curbs, iPhone factory unrest adds to economy worries

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  • COVID restrictions ramped up as cases rise
  • iPhone factory unrest underscores industrial, social risks
  • Analysts warn of potential for wider lockdowns
  • Resort city Sanya imposes movement curbs on new arrivals

BEIJING, Nov 23 (Reuters) – Chinese cities imposed more curbs on Wednesday to rein in rising coronavirus cases, adding to investor worries about the economy, as fresh unrest at the world’s largest iPhone plant highlighted the social and industrial toll of China’s strict COVID-19 measures.

In Beijing, malls and parks were shut and once-bustling areas of the capital resembled ghost towns as authorities urged people to stay home.

The Hainan island resort city of Sanya barred people from going to restaurants and malls within three days of arrival, and numerous cities across China have imposed localised lockdowns as infections neared highs seen in April.

The measures are darkening the outlook for the world’s second-largest economy and dampening hopes that China would significantly ease its outlier COVID stance any time soon, as China faces its first winter battling the highly contagious Omicron variant.

“While there is little prospect of the authorities opting to step back from the zero-COVID policy during the winter, there is a significant risk that containment efforts fail,” analysts at Capital Economics wrote.

Such a failure could result in more lockdowns which would cause unprecedented damage to the economy, they said.

China’s COVID curbs, the tightest in the world, have fuelled widespread discontent and disrupted production at manufacturers including Taiwan’s Foxconn (2317.TW), Apple Inc’s biggest iPhone supplier.

On Wednesday, footage uploaded on social media showed Foxconn workers pulling down barriers and fighting with authorities in hazmat suits, chanting “give us our pay”. The unrest follows weeks of turmoil which has seen scores of employees leave the factory over COVID controls. The videos could not be immediately verified by Reuters.

Localities accounting for nearly one-fifth of China’s total GDP are under some form of lockdown or curbs, brokerage Nomura estimated earlier this week, a figure that would exceed the GDP of Britain.

TESTING RESOLVE

Even though infection numbers are low by global standards, China has stuck with its zero-COVID approach, a signature policy of President Xi Jinping that officials argue saves lives and prevents the medical system from being overwhelmed.

China reported 28,883 new domestically transmitted cases for Tuesday.

The International Monetary Fund urged China to further recalibrate its COVID-19 strategy and boost vaccination rates.

“Although the zero-COVID strategy has become nimbler over time, the combination of more contagious COVID variants and persistent gaps in vaccinations have led to the need for more frequent lockdowns, weighing on consumption and private investment,” IMF official Gita Gopinath said.

Residents are increasingly fed up with nearly three years of restrictions, and Wednesday’s protest at the Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou comes after crowds recently crashed through barriers and clashed with hazmat-suit-clad workers in the southern city of Guangzhou.

The rising case numbers are also testing China’s resolve to avoid one-size-fits-all measures such as mass lockdowns to curb outbreaks, and rely on recently tweaked COVID rules instead.

However, unofficial lockdowns have increased, including in residential buildings and compounds in Beijing, where case numbers hit a new high on Tuesday.

In Shanghai, a city of 25 million that was locked down for two months earlier this year, China’s top auto association said on Wednesday it would cancel the second day of the China Automotive Overseas Development Summit being held there over COVID concerns.

Chengdu, with 428 cases on Tuesday, became the latest city to announce mass testing.

Major manufacturing hubs Chongqing and Guangzhou have seen persistently high infection numbers, accounting for most of China’s caseload. Cases in Guangzhou fell slightly on Tuesday to 7,970 and authorities have said infections continue to be concentrated in key areas of Haizhu district.

Investors who last week were hopeful that China would ease restrictions have grown worried that the infection wave could slow economic reopening. read more Many analysts say a significant easing of COVID curbs is unlikely before March or April.

A sharper than expected slowdown in China, which is hurting domestic demand in particular, would reverberate across countries including Japan, South Korea and Australia, which export hundreds of billions of dollars worth of products and commodities to the world’s second largest economy.

Analysts are also cutting forecasts for oil demand from the world’s top crude importer, with recent COVID curbs already driving global oil futures lower.

“The next few weeks could be the worst in China since the early weeks of the pandemic both for the economy and the healthcare system,” said analysts at Capital Economics.

Reporting by Beijing and Shanghai newsrooms; Writing by Bernard Orr; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Miral Fahmy, Tony Munroe and Bernadette Baum

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Beijing shuts parks, Shanghai tightens entry as China COVID cases rise

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  • China COVID infection numbers near April peaks
  • Beijing widens shutdown of public venues
  • Guangzhou, Chongqing account for largest infection numbers
  • Shanghai tightens rules for recent arrivals after 48 new cases

BEIJING, Nov 22 (Reuters) – Beijing shut parks and museums on Tuesday and Shanghai tightened rules for people entering the city as Chinese authorities grapple with a spike in COVID-19 cases that has deepened concern about the economy and dimmed hopes for a quick reopening.

China reported 28,127 new domestically transmitted cases for Monday, nearing its daily peak from April, with infections in the southern city of Guangzhou and the southwestern municipality of Chongqing accounting for about half the total.

In Beijing, cases have been hitting new highs every day, prompting calls from the city government for more residents to stay put and show proof of a negative COVID test, not more than 48 hours old, to get into public buildings.

Late on Tuesday, financial hub Shanghai announced that from Thursday people may not enter venues such as shopping malls and restaurants within five days of arriving in the city, although they can still go to offices and use transport. Earlier, the city of 25 million people ordered the closure of cultural and entertainment venues in seven of its 16 districts after reporting 48 new local infections.

The wave of infections is testing recent adjustments China has made to its zero-COVID policy, aimed at making authorities more targeted in clampdown measures and steering them away from blanket lockdowns and testing that have strangled the economy and frustrated residents nearly three years into the pandemic.

“Some of our friends went bankrupt, and some lost their jobs,” said a 50-year-old Beijing retiree surnamed Zhu.

“We can’t do many activities we intended to do, and it is impossible to travel. So we really hope that the pandemic can end as soon as possible,” she said.

Health authorities attributed two more deaths to COVID-19, after three over the weekend, which were China’s first since May.

Even after the adjusted guidelines, China remains a global outlier with its strict COVID restrictions, including borders that remain all-but-shut.

Tightening measures in Beijing and elsewhere, even as China tries to avoid city-wide lockdowns like the one that crippled Shanghai this year, have renewed investor worries about the world’s second-largest economy, weighing on stocks and prompting analysts to cut forecasts for China’s year-end oil demand.

Brokerage Nomura said its in-house index estimated that localities accounting for about 19.9% of China’s total gross domestic product were under some form of lockdown or curbs, up from 15.6% last Monday and not far off the index’s peak in April, during Shanghai’s lockdown.

The government argues that President Xi Jinping’s signature zero-COVID policy saves lives and is necessary to prevent the healthcare system becoming overwhelmed.

[1/5] A pandemic prevention worker in a protective suit keeps watch at at residential compound after it was locked down as outbreaks of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continue in Beijing, November 18, 2022. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

But many frustrated social media users drew a comparison with maskless fans at the soccer World Cup, which began on Sunday in Qatar.

“Tens of thousands in Qatar don’t wear masks. And we are still panicking,” wrote one user on the Weibo platform.

LOCALISED LOCKDOWNS

Numerous Beijing residents have seen their buildings locked down during the recent outbreak, although those restrictions often last just a few days.

Some residents said grocery deliveries were slow because of heavy volumes while many museums were closed and venues such as the Happy Valley amusement park and the Chaoyang Park, popular with runners and picnickers, said they would shut.

Beijing reported 1,438 new domestic cases for Monday, up from 962 on Sunday, plus 634 more for the first 15 hours of Tuesday.

Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, who has spearheaded the zero-COVID policy, visited Chongqing on Monday and urged authorities to stick with the plan and bring the outbreak under control, the municipality said.

NOT AS ROSY

China’s economy faces one of its slowest growth rates in decades: a gigantic property bubble has burst, youth unemployment recently hit record highs, and the private sector has been paralysed by its zero-COVID policy and a series of crackdowns on industries authorities say had seen “barbaric” expansion.

Investors had hoped that China’s more targeted enforcement of COVID curbs could herald more significant easing, but many analysts are cautioning against being too bullish.

Experts caution that full reopening requires a massive vaccination booster effort and a change in messaging in a country where the disease remains widely feared. Authorities say they plan to build more hospital capacity and fever clinics to screen patients, and are formulating a vaccination drive.

“The real picture may not be as rosy as it seems,” Nomura analysts wrote, saying they only expected any reopening to accelerate after March next year, when the reshuffle of China’s top leadership is completed.

“Reopening could be back and forth as policymakers may back down after observing rapid increases in cases and social disruptions. As such, local officials may be even more reluctant to be the initial movers when they try to sound out Beijing’s true intentions,” Nomura wrote.

Reporting by the Beijing and Shanghai newsroom; Writing by Brenda Goh; Editing by Tony Munroe, Miral Fahmy, Gerry Doyle, Raissa Kasolowsky and Emelia Sithole-Matarise

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New China COVID rules spur concern as some cities halt routine tests

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  • Regular COVID testing no longer required in several cities
  • China eased various virus curbs last Friday
  • Communities worried over virus spread under relaxed rules
  • Major cities including Beijing report record cases for Nov 13

BEIJING, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Several Chinese cities began cutting routine community COVID-19 testing on Monday, days after China announced an easing of some of its heavy-handed coronavirus measures, sparking worry in some communities as nationwide cases continued to rise.

In the northern city of Shijiazhuang, some families expressed concern about exposing their children to the virus at school, giving excuses such as toothaches or earaches for their children’s absence, according to social media posts following a state media report that testing in the city would end.

Other cities, including Yanji in the northeast and Hefei in the east, also said they will stop routine community COVID testing, according to official notices, halting a practice that has become a major fiscal burden for communities across China.

On Friday, the National Health Commission updated its COVID rules in the most significant easing of curbs yet, describing the changes as an “optimisation” of its measures to soften the impact on people’s lives, even as China sticks to its zero-COVID policy nearly three years into the pandemic.

The move, which cut quarantine times for close contacts of cases and inbound travellers by two days, to eight days total, was applauded by investors, even though many experts don’t expect China to begin significant easing until March or April at the earliest.

The changes come even as several major cities including Beijing logged record infections on Monday, posing a challenge for authorities scrambling to quell outbreaks quickly while trying to minimise the impact on people’s lives and the economy.

Some areas of Beijing are requiring daily tests.

The concern and confusion in Shijiazhuang was a top-five trending topic on the Twitter-like Weibo.

The city’s Communist Party chief, Zhang Chaochao, said its “optimisation” of prevention measures should not be seen as authorities “lying flat” – an expression for inaction – nor is Shijiazhuang moving towards “full liberation” from COVID curbs.

The city, about 295 kms (183 miles) southwest of Beijing, reported 544 infections for Sunday, only three of which it categorised as symptomatic.

“I’m a little scared. In the future, public places will not look at nucleic acid tests, and nucleic acid test points will also be closed, everyone needs to pay for the tests,” one Weibo user wrote, referring to Shijiazhuang.

Gavekal Research said in a Monday note that it was “curious timing” for China to relax its COVID policies: “The combination of an intensifying outbreak and loosening central requirements has led to debate over whether China is now gradually moving to a de facto policy of tolerating Covid,” it said.

FRESH RECORDS

Nationwide, 16,072 new locally transmitted cases were reported by the National Health Commission, up from 14,761 on Sunday and the most in China since April 25, when Shanghai was battling an outbreak that locked down the city for two months.

Beijing, Chongqing, Guangzhou and Zhengzhou all recorded their worst days so far, though in the capital city the tally was a few hundred cases, while the other cities were counting in thousands.

Case numbers are small compared with infection levels in other countries, but China’s insistence on clearing outbreaks as soon as they emerge under its zero-COVID policy has been widely disruptive to daily life and the economy.

Under the new rules unveiled on Friday, individuals, neighbourhoods and public spaces can still be subject to lockdowns, but the health commission relaxed some measures.

In addition to shortening quarantines, secondary close contacts are no longer identified and put into isolation – removing what had been a major inconvenience for people caught up in contact-tracing efforts when a case is found.

Despite the loosening of curbs, many experts described the measures as incremental, with some predicting that China is unlikely to begin reopening until after the March session of parliament, at the earliest.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs said on Monday that rising cases in cities including Guangzhou and Chongqing and the continuation of the zero-COVID policy pose downside near-term economic risks.

Reporting by Liz Lee, Jason Xue, Wang Jing and Ryan Woo; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Tony Munroe and Emelia Sithole-Matarise

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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China’s COVID epicentre shifts to Guangzhou as outbreaks widen

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  • Southern manufacturing hub fighting worst COVID-19 flare-up
  • Cases double in Zhengzhou, production base for Apple supplier
  • Chinese stocks, currency slip over virus fears

BEIJING, Nov 8 (Reuters) – New coronavirus cases surged in Guangzhou and other Chinese cities, official data showed on Tuesday, with the global manufacturing hub becoming China’s latest COVID-19 epicentre and testing the city’s ability to avoid a Shanghai-style lockdown.

Nationwide, new locally transmitted infections climbed to 7,475 on Nov. 7, according to China’s health authority, up from 5,496 the day before and the highest since May 1. Guangzhou accounted for nearly a third of the new infections.

The increase was modest by global standards but significant for China, where outbreaks are to be quickly tackled when they surface under its zero-COVID policy. Economically vital cities, including the capital Beijing, are demanding more PCR tests for residents and locking down neighbourhoods and even districts in some cases.

The sharp rebound will test China’s ability to keep its COVID measures surgical and targeted, and could dampen investors’ hopes that the world’s second-largest economy could ease curbs and restrictions soon.

“We are seeing a game between rising voices for loosening controls and rapid spreading of COVID cases,” said Nie Wen, a Shanghai-based economist at Hwabao Trust.

Considering how the nationwide COVID curbs are crushing domestic consumption, Nie said he had downgraded his fourth-quarter economic growth forecast to around 3.5% from 4%-4.5%. The economy grew 3.9% in July-September.

The rising case load dragged on China’s stock markets on Tuesday, but shares have not yet surrendered last week’s big gains.

Investors see China’s beaten-down markets as an attractive prospect as a global slowdown looms, and have focused on small clues of gradual change – such as more targeted lockdowns and progress on vaccination rates.

“No matter how harsh the letter of the law is…there is a little bit more loosening,” said Damien Boey, chief macro strategist at Australian investment bank Barrenjoey.

NO FULL LOCKDOWN YET

Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, reported 2,377 new local cases for Nov. 7, up from 1,971 the previous day. It was a dramatic jump from double-digit increases two weeks ago.

Surging case numbers in the sprawling southern city, dubbed the “factory floor of the world”, means Guangzhou has surpassed the northern Inner Mongolia city of Hohhot to become China’s COVID epicentre, in its most serious outbreak ever.

Many of Guangzhou’s districts, including central Haizhu, have imposed varying levels of curbs and lockdowns. But, so far, the city has not imposed a blanket lockdown like the one in Shanghai earlier this year.

Shanghai, currently not facing a COVID resurgence, went into a lockdown in April and May after reporting several thousand new infections daily in the last week of March.

“We have been working from home for the past couple of days,” said Aaron Xu, who runs a company in Guangzhou.

“Only a few compounds have been locked up so far. Mostly we are seeing disruptions in the form of public transit services being suspended and compound security barring couriers and food delivery. And we have to do PCR tests every day.”

RISING CASES

In Beijing, authorities detected 64 new local infections, a small uptick relative to Guangzhou and Zhengzhou, but enough to spark a new burst of PCR tests for many of its residents and a lockdown of more buildings and neighbourhoods.

“The lockdown situation has continued to deteriorate quickly across the country over the past week, with our in-house China COVID lockdown index rising to 12.2% of China’s total GDP from 9.5% last Monday,” Nomura wrote in a note on Monday.

Zhengzhou, capital of central Henan province and a major production base for Apple (AAPL.O) supplier Foxconn (2317.TW), reported 733 new local cases for Nov. 7, more than doubling from a day earlier.

In the southwest metropolis of Chongqing, the city reported 281 new local cases, also more than doubling from 120 a day earlier.

In the coal-producing region of Inner Mongolia, the city of Hohhot reported 1,760 new local cases for Nov. 7, up from 1,013 a day earlier.

Reporting by Ryan Woo, Bernard Orr, Liz Lee and Jing Wang; Additional reporting by Josh Ye in Hong Kong and Tom Westbrook in Singapore; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Stephen Coates and Raissa Kasolowsky

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Fearing COVID, workers flee from Foxconn’s vast Chinese iPhone plant

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BEIJING, Oct 31 (Reuters) – After enduring days of lock-in at Foxconn’s vast facility in central China with 200,000 other workers, Yuan finally climbed the fences on Saturday night and escaped the complex, joining others fleeing what they feared was a widening COVID outbreak.

He walked through the night, keeping to a northerly route, towards his hometown of Hebi, every step taking him farther away from iPhone maker Foxconn’s (2317.TW) Zhengzhou plant, the Taiwan-based group’s largest in mainland China.

“There were so many people on the road,” Yuan told Reuters on Monday, declining to give his full name because of the matter’s sensitivity.

Since mid-October, Foxconn has been wrestling with a COVID-19 outbreak at its facility in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province in central China. Workers were locked in to stop the spread of the coronavirus to the outside word. Foxconn has repeatedly refrained from disclosing the case load.

“We were shut in on Oct. 14, and we had to do endless PCR tests, and after about 10 days, we had to wear N95 masks, and were given traditional Chinese medicine,” said Yuan.

Whenever a positive or suspected case was found at a production line, there would be a public broadcast, but work would continue, he told Reuters.

“People would be called away in the middle of work, and if they don’t show up the next day, that would mean they had been taken away,” Yuan said.

Around 20,000 workers had been put in quarantine on-site, Yuan had heard, but he could not be sure how many were infected, as management did not publicise that information.

China typically isolates vast numbers of people considered close or even potential contacts of an infected person.

The world’s second-largest economy continues to wage war on COVID with disruptive lockdowns, mass testing and quarantines while many other countries have chosen to live with the disease. read more

For companies with massive manufacturing campuses like Foxconn, that has meant keeping thousands of workers on-site in so-called “closed-loop” systems to keep their production lines running.

“Food for tens of thousands was merely left outside (of the quarantine buildings at the plant),” said a worker surnamed Li, 21.

Li, who is still at the plant, said she was planning to quit.

In a statement on Monday, Apple (AAPL.O) supplier Foxconn said that reports that 20,000 staff had been diagnosed with COVID were false.

On Sunday afternoon, the company told Reuters in an emailed statement that workers were allowed to leave if they chose to. read more

Foxconn did not immediately respond to a Reuters request on Monday for further comment.

‘NEVER GO BACK’

Disruptions from China’s zero-COVID policies to commerce and industry have widened in October as cases escalated. Apart from the Foxconn lockdown, the Shanghai Disney Resort was shut from Monday to comply with counter-epidemic requirements, with visitors still inside.

For Yuan, matters came to a head when he heard that a housing complex for workers near his plant had been cordoned off by security on Friday, and that the plant itself was to go under a curfew the next day.

In a panic, Yuan decided to leave the next day, joining streams of other escaping workers. It was not immediately clear if a curfew was eventually imposed.

By Sunday morning, Yuan had hiked to the banks of the Yellow River, the northern boundary of Zhengzhou, where he was stopped 50 km (30 miles) short of Hebi by authorities from the city of Xinxiang on the other side.

“I’ll never go back to Foxconn,” said Yuan, who has since been transported to Hebi and put under quarantine.

“Zhengzhou has put a chill in my heart.”

Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom and Ziyi Tang; Editing by Christian Schmollinger

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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