Chances of large outbreak in Shenzhen fall

Companies under closed-loop operation 'not largely affected', city official says

The possibility of a large-scale COVID-19 outbreak in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, has lessened, a senior official of the city's health commission said on Tuesday.

"All cases in the current COVID-19 resurgence in Shenzhen since July 15 have been detected at an early stage and the overall epidemic situation is well under control," Lin Hancheng, an official for the health commission, said at a news conference on Tuesday.

The outbreak featured sporadic distribution in residential communities, but the number of new cases in communities has decreased in recent days, Lin said.

Shenzhen reported 19 cases on Monday, including four new locally transmitted confirmed cases and 15 asymptomatic carriers, according to the Shenzhen health authority.

"We cannot slack on prevention and control efforts as the city is still challenged by sporadic cases, which indicates that community transmission of COVID-19 has not yet been completely cut off," Lin said.

Strengthened measures including improvement of the quality of nucleic acid testing, traceability of new COVID-19 cases and prevention and control in key industries identified as being at higher risk have been introduced, according to Lin.

Operation of indoor spaces including swimming pools, KTVs and bars in the city's key risk areas have been closed and activities such as dancing in public squares will be suspended, according to Lin.

Additionally, the Shenzhen industry and information technology authority has issued a notice urging key enterprises including Huawei, Foxconn and automobile maker BYD to continue operations within a completely closed-loop environment for seven days, starting from Sunday.

Workers, without urgent reasons, are not allowed to go out and people from outside will be strictly controlled entering their industrial parks.

Companies under closed-loop operation in the city said their businesses have not been largely affected, as production, supply chains and exports are normal.

"The measures this time are aimed at ensuring the safety of production areas and the supply chain－it is more about protection rather than prevention," said Gao Qing, general manager of Shenzhen Jingfeng Crystal Technology Co.

Supply chains and production at the company, which focuses on the research and manufacture of electronic components, remained normal, according to Gao.

"But our business, mainly in exports, has been affected due to the slowing recovery of the global economic situation," she told China Daily.

In March, Shenzhen adopted one week of so-called slow living, during which residents underwent multiple rounds of nucleic acid testing and largely stayed at home, following a then-citywide resurgence.

Most factories across the city were ordered to shut down for a week, with only about 100 key enterprises being allowed to continue operations in a closed-loop environment in March.