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Tag: lockdown
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Chinese factory workers protest harsh COVID rules
Chinese factory workers protest harsh COVID rules – CBS News
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China expands lockdowns amid
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China is expanding lockdowns, including in a central city where factory workers clashed this week with police, as its number of COVID-19 cases hit a daily record.
People in eight districts of Zhengzhou with a total of 6.6 million residents were told to stay home for five days beginning Thursday, except to buy food or get medical treatment. Daily mass testing was ordered in what the city government called a “war of annihilation” against the virus.
During clashes Tuesday and Wednesday, Zhengzhou police beat workers protesting over a pay dispute at the biggest factory for Apple’s iPhone.
Across China, the number of new cases reported in the past 24 hours was 31,444, the National Health Commission said Thursday. That is the highest daily figure since the coronavirus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.
Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
The daily average of reported cases is steadily increasing. This week, authorities reported China’s first COVID-19 deaths in six months, bringing the total to 5,232.
While the numbers of cases and deaths are relatively low compared to the U.S. and other countries, China’s ruling Communist Party remains committed to its “zero-COVID” strategy that aims to isolate every case and eliminate the virus entirely while other governments end anti-virus controls and rely on vaccinations and immunity from past infections to prevent deaths and serious illness.
Businesses and residential communities from the manufacturing center of Guangzhou in the south to Beijing in the north have also been placed under various forms of lockdown, measures that particularly affects blue-collar migrant workers. In many cases, residents say the restrictions go beyond what the national government allows.
Guangzhou suspended access Monday to its Baiyun district of 3.7 million residents, while residents of some areas of Shijiazhuang, a city of 11 million people southwest of Beijing, were told to stay home while mass testing is conducted.
Beijing this week opened a hospital in an exhibition center and suspended access to Beijing International Studies University after a virus case was found there. The capital earlier closed shopping malls and office buildings and suspended access to some apartment compounds.
The tightening came after the Communist party this month announced measures to try to reduce disruptions by shortening quarantines and making other changes.
The party is trying to contain the latest wave of outbreaks without shutting down factories and the rest of its economy as it did in early 2020. Its tactics include “closed-loop management,” under which workers live in their factories with no outside contact.
Economic growth rebounded to 3.9% over a year earlier in the three months ending in September, up from the first half’s 2.2%. But activity already was starting to fall back, and growth for the year is on track to fall well short of the government’s target of 5.5%.
Foxconn, the world’s biggest contract assembler of smartphones and other electronics, is struggling to fill orders for the iPhone 14 after thousands of employees walked away from the factory in Zhengzhou last month following complaints about unsafe working conditions.
Foxconn, based in Taiwan, said its contractual obligation about payments “has always been fulfilled.”
The company denied what it said were comments online that employees with the virus lived in dormitories at the Zhengzhou factory. It said facilities were disinfected and passed government checks before employees moved in.
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Even as kids’ deaths blamed on COVID restrictions, China responds to soaring cases with more quarantine beds
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Beijing — Just weeks after authorities apologized for the death of a three-year-old boy in the western city of Lanzhou, who couldn’t get emergency medical help in time because his neighborhood was one of many under coronavirus lockdowns, a similar tragedy has rekindled anger over China’s draconian “zero-COVID” policy.
A four-year-old girl who was suffering with vomiting and diarrhea in a hotel room where she and her father were under mandatory quarantine this week in Zhengzhou, central China, died after failing to get an ambulance in time, according to Chinese media. The reports said her father waited 11 hours for help after the emergency services dragged their heels in dealing with his case, and when they finally came, she was transported to a hospital 60 miles away.
Local health authorities said they were investigating the incident, which came just days after China revealed some adjustments to its strict anti-COVID measures aimed largely at luring business back to the country. The zero-COVID policy remains very much in place, however, with its stated aim being to quickly identify people who have contracted the virus and their close contacts, and immediately isolate them.
The changes to the policy include a clause stating that people in quarantine zones should not be blocked from access to emergency medical care.
While the latest case has drawn anger, reaction on China’s tightly controlled social media platforms appeared divided. One widely-shared post on the Twitter-like platform Weibo argued that without the zero-COVID policy, the hospital would be flooded with patients and more people would suffer.
But other users disagreed, with one noting that while testing positive for COVID generally does not mean a death sentence, withholding medical help for a sick child can — and in at least two cases now, did — lead to deaths.
While the Chinese hashtag for “girl refused medical help died” had been read 180 million times, it was not showing up in the “trending” column on the platform, one user noted, suggesting possible efforts by the government to bury the discussion.
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Despite the harsh measures, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases soared to 23,132 as of Thursday, doubling in less than a week to the highest national caseload China has reported in seven months.
Chinese authorities’ response to the rising cases appears to be even more quarantine beds.
Authorities in the city of Guangzhou announced plans on Thursday to build more quarantine facilities with almost 250,000 additional beds in a bid to stem the surge in cases there. The national health commission has broadly backed regional plans to increase quarantine capacities.
Residents have been losing their patience in the sprawling city, parts of which have been under piecemeal lockdowns since early November. Earlier this week, unconfirmed videos on social media appeared to show angry crowds pushing down fences that were confining localized areas in Guangzhou. Fencing off neighborhoods has been a common practice in China since the beginning of the pandemic in areas deemed “risky” for the spread of the virus.
News stories noting that not a single one of the more than 30,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Guangzhou has been severe have gone viral, leading people to question the necessity of the mandatory quarantines. One comment under an article on the theme reads: “The virus is not scary but stupidity is.”
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China eases, slightly, its draconian
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Andy Wong/AP
Beijing — One day after President Xi Jinping chaired a meeting of China‘s ruling Communist Party leaders on the country’s anti-coronavirus policies, and despite rising cases, the government announced a new 20-point plan on Friday that eased, slightly, its strict “zero-COVID” measures. The announcement came after months of speculation among Chinese residents and international travelers about how far Beijing might go to relax its restrictions, which have virtually closed the country’s borders for years.
In short, China is still far from open for business as usual.
Describing the pandemic as still “severe,” the Chinese government’s new plan fell well short of any fantasies that Beijing might completely lift the restrictions that are now almost exclusive to the country. While most of the world has reopened to travel and countries have allowed travel across their borders, Chinese residents’ daily lives remain disrupted, foreign visitors must quarantine for days, and economic activity is still mired by recurring lockdowns and closures.
It wasn’t clear when the new policy would fully take effect, but under it, international travelers arriving in mainland China will only need to spend five days in centralized quarantine, sometimes in a hotel, sometimes in less-well-equipped isolation camps. Under the rules in place for months, foreign visitors have been required to spend seven days in quarantine.
Once that centralized quarantine is completed, travelers will still be required to spend three days of confinement at their home, or for non-residents, at a facility designated by the government.
There was no relaxation of the rules for non-residents and or pleasure seekers, however. So, if you were hoping to come and see the Forbidden City, don’t get your hopes up. Tourist visas still aren’t being issued.The same shortened quarantine time also applies to people identified as coming into close contact with known positive COVID cases. Health authorities will also stop hunting down or identifying secondary contacts, or contacts of contacts, which will likely significantly reduce the number of residents forced into isolation under the long-standing rules.
The incremental easing of the regulations was clearly aimed at luring foreign business back to China, with penalties on international airlines for bringing confirmed COVID-19 cases into the country also being scrapped.
But a foreign ministry spokesperson, speaking at a regular briefing on Friday, downplayed the relaxation and highlighted the “severe” nature of ongoing outbreaks.
Cases rising
Easing the measures was clear indicator of the financial pressure Beijing’s own policies have brought to bear on the country economically, especially as cases are back on the uptick.
The number of confirmed COVID cases in Beijing hit its highest level in more than a year this week, while the nationwide total exceeded 10,000 for the first time since April.Many public venues in Beijing’s central Chaoyang district, the epicenter of the capital’s current outbreak, have started requiring a negative PCR test result from within the past 24 hours for entry, instead of the usual 72 hours. Although there has been no official citywide order announced, many parks, shopping centers and schools have been closed.
JULIEN TAN/Feature China/Future Publishing/Getty
In the southwestern megacity of Chongqing, cases hit a new high of 783 on Thursday. Public transportation was locked down in some areas of the metropolis.
The southeastern city of Guangzhou has seen the most cases recently. Its Haizhu district had already been under lockdown for a week, and that local lockdown was extended on Friday at least through the weekend.
Given that the existing measures have failed to quash the city’s outbreak, many worry that all of Guangzhou — which has a population of more than 15 million — could be placed under a citywide lockdown like the one Shanghai residents endured in the spring.
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Shanghai Disneyland visitors locked in park for hours, reportedly over a single COVID case
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VCG/VCG via Getty
Beijing — Visitors to Shanghai Disneyland were temporarily blocked from leaving the park on Monday as hundreds of thousands of people were screened for COVID-19 infection over a single case. The testing extended to more than 400,000 people, the city government announced Tuesday.
The park closed Monday for testing of staff and visitors, Walt Disney Co. and the government said in separate statements. The city health bureau said guests all tested negative and were allowed to leave by 8:30 p.m., but one visitor from elsewhere in China told the Reuters news agency she didn’t make it out until 10 p.m.Marvis He told Reuters she and her companion had flown in from the city of Shenzhen to enjoy the Disney park’s Halloween fireworks.
“I feel disappointed, we waited so long in the park… but we didn’t get to see anything and only got to get out at 10 p.m.,” she told Reuters as she left.
“We were also cold and hungry,” added her friend.
Reuters quoted city authorities as saying the resort shut its gates after authorities became aware of a 31-year-old woman who had visited the park in recent days testing positive for the coronavirus.
VCG/VCG via Getty
Some 1.3 million residents of Shanghai’s downtown Yangpu district had been ordered to stay at home for virus testing on Friday, and it was expected to be related to the same case.
President Xi Jinping’s government has stuck to its severe “zero-COVID” strategy even as most of the rest of the world has dropped anti-coronavirus restrictions. The draconian measures have seen entire cities, including Shanghai, shut down this year to isolate every suspected case.
Also Tuesday, authorities in the southern territory of Macao were carrying out virus tests on all of its 700,000 residents after one case was found last week.
“Zero-COVID” has kept infection rates relatively low but at a high cost as businesses struggle with repeated shutdowns.Hong Kong’s main stock market index surged 5.2% on Tuesday after a comment circulated on Chinese social media that said the ruling Communist Party might set up a “reopening committee” to look at ways to wind down the anti-virus controls.
A foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, told reporters he was “not aware of what you just mentioned” when asked about the rumor.
Outbreaks in Shanghai in March led to a shutdown that confined most of its 25 million people to their homes for two months.
The city government appealed to anyone who had visited the Shanghai Disney Resort since Thursday to undergo three days of nucleic acid testing and avoid gathering in groups.Disney said Monday parts of the resort closed due to anti-virus regulations but gave no indication visitors were kept inside. It said Shanghai Disneyland, Disneytown and Wishing Star Park were closed while two hotels were operating normally.
Some rides and other amusements kept operating Monday while visitors were tested, according to social media posts.
“Please return and take a tour in the park,” a video on the popular Sina Weibo platform showed an employee in a mask saying to guests. “The park’s gates are all closed temporarily, and you cannot leave now.”
Another video on Sina Weibo showed technicians in white protective suits who appeared to be taking throat swabs from guests after dark while police watched and a fireworks display lit up the sky behind them.
“The most beautiful nucleic acid detection point,” the account user wrote.[ad_2]
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NYC man asks neighbor out via drone amid virus lockdown
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NYC man asks neighbor out via drone amid virus lockdown – CBS News
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Nightlock Now Offers Sneeze Guards for Schools Nationwide
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Michigan-based security company adds new social-distancing products to its line of school and residential devices
Press Release
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updated: Sep 10, 2020
MOUNT MORRIS, Mich., September 10, 2020 (Newswire.com)
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School-safety company Nightlock has broadened its line of school security products with the unveiling of its Sneeze Guards. Responding to the urgent demand for school safety needs across the nation due to COVID-19, these products consist of clear acrylic panels that are perfect for preventing the spread of germs and transmission of disease.Easy to install and set up, Nightlock’s sneeze guards are used to provide a line of defense against classroom desks, teacher’s desks, cafeteria tables, and countless other applications. After use, the sneeze guards fold flat for simple cleaning and quick storage to accommodate busy classrooms and school facilities.
Sneeze guards from Nightlock are most-effectively implemented according to the company’s recommendations, which conform to the current CDC social distancing guidelines against the spread of COVID-19 in schools. These safety guidelines include:
1. Space desks six feet apart in classrooms.
2. Class sizes should be kept to necessary spacing requirements.
3. Space students as far apart as feasible.
4. Arrange all desks facing the same direction to the front of the classroom.
5. Teachers should maintain six feet of spacing away from students.
6. Post signage to indicate proper social distancing and hygiene.
As hundreds of thousands of U.S. schools prepare for in-person learning, there’s no question that cleanliness is top of mind for parents, students, and educators. Schools are taking as many measures as possible to deal with the newest viral threat. Recently conducted studies, including one conducted by industrial cleaning company OpenWorks, surveyed educators’ biggest worries and actions about the upcoming school year and safety in the wake of COVID-19. Those surveyed felt that the school areas that are most prone to germs include: bathrooms (89%), cafeterias (81%), buses (77%), locker rooms (71%), computer labs (70%), regular classrooms (67%), gyms (66%), and playgrounds (66%). Nightlock’s line of sneeze guards is a cost-effective solution proven to improve the health and safety of these areas in schools and educational facilities.
Nightlock’s innovative products have been developed as a high-performing response to the rise in threats that affect children, faculty, and the community at large. Nightlock’s addition of its sneeze guards to its line of security products complements the company’s best-selling flagship product, the Nightlock® Lockdown Door Barricade devices, as well as Campus Safety Shades, and more.
Nightlock is a family-owned commercial- and residential-security company based in Mount Morris, Michigan. Founded in 2011, Nightlock manufactures, markets, and installs its patented Nightlock® home, school, and business-security products to enhance the lives of its customers through increased security and safety. Since the company’s founding, Nightlock’s products have been used in thousands of schools, churches, government and retail buildings, as well as homes across the United States. Nightlock has been featured in Government Technology and many national news outlets.
For more information about this topic, please email Jason Matznick at jason@nightlock.com.
Source: Nightlock
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