NEW DELHI, Oct 31: Mass exodus from industrial units in China has surfaced following amidst soaring Coronavirus cases. A video uploaded in social media showed such a massive exodus from Apple’s iPhone manufacturing facility as Covid-19 cases in China climbed to the 2,500 mark on Monday, the maximum single-day increase in over 80 days, forcing the company to shut down production and saw operator Foxconn lockdown the facility.
Factory workers staged a collective exit from Apple’s biggest factory in China as reports suggest that hundreds of workers were stuck under poor living conditions. Reports suggest that the workers left the area due to a lack of the implementation of stringent measures to check for Covid infection in the area.
The factory is situated in Zhengzhou city in central Henan province in Central China, the world’s largest iPhone factory, and Apple supplier Foxconn is said to have nearly 20,000 workers at the said outlet. Visuals showed people taking to the streets with basics in their hands and luggage on their shoulders. Local journalists and news agencies, on Twitter, mentioned a dearth of food supplies inside the Foxconn factory. Videos circulated showing factory workers leaving the zone, seemingly in the absence of public transportation.
Hinting at the Covid outbreak in the factory, they said ‘only by escaping’ could the factory workers survive. Also, the number of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the factory remains unknown and the Covid rules which were in place or the ones which were not enacted could not be identified, as yet.
Media reports said about 200,000 workers were at the Zhengzhou complex. In fact, it said that workers at the said factory not only raised concerns over food and basics but flagged a lack of requisite medical facilities. At one point, only workers in the production department were given meal boxes, while the ones with the infection or the ones who were afraid to exit the factory were given basic food like bread and instant noodles.
The Taiwanese tech giant’s plant in Zhengzhou has been hit by a mass outbreak, with the company saying it is testing employees daily and keeping them in a closed loop.
Videos circulating on social media over the weekend appeared to show Foxconn employees fleeing the company’s campus in Zhengzhou and returning to their hometowns on foot, in a bid to avoid Covid travel restrictions.
In one of the videos, people lift suitcases as they climb up a hillside, while another shows people sitting with their luggage by the side of a road as a person in a hazmat suit sprays what appears to be disinfectant at them.
Local governments in the area surrounding the city issued notices asking Foxconn workers to register with authorities if they returned home and to complete several days of quarantine upon arrival. The Taiwanese firm said it was “cooperating with the government to organize personnel and vehicles” for employees who want to leave.
Foxconn has said it faces a “protracted battle” to stamp out the Covid-19 outbreak, but has not said how many of the more than 200,000 staff are affected or in isolation. Foxconn has been accused of forcing employees who are unwell to work and not providing medical treatment or timely meals throughout the outbreak.
(Manas Dasgupta)
