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(Bloomberg) -- Zhengzhou, home to Apple Inc.’s largest iPhone manufacturing site, will be largely locked down for five days as officials in the Chinese city resort to tighter curbs to quell a swelling Covid-19 outbreak.
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Mobility controls -- a euphemism for lockdown -- will be imposed in the main urban areas of Zhengzhou from Friday through Nov. 29 because of rising virus cases, Zhengzhou’s pandemic task force said in a statement late Wednesday. The city reported 996 infections on Wednesday, up from 813 a day earlier.
The new restrictions were announced after hundreds of workers at the plant, known as ‘iPhone City’ for its scale, streamed out of dormitories earlier in the day. Employees at the Foxconn Technology Group factory clashed with white-clad security personnel, according to videos from the scene, with anger over unpaid wages and fear over virus infections fueling the unrest.
Read more: Violent Protests Erupt at Apple’s Main IPhone Plant in China
According to the Zhengzhou government’s Wednesday night directive, people living in areas designated as high risk must stay at home, while others are advised not to leave their residences or compounds unless necessary. Daily PCR tests will also be conducted.
Ronnie Cai, 31, lives in one of the locked down districts. He said there were rumors more intensive restrictions were coming before the announcement.
“I just don’t understand how, after fighting the virus for a month already, we can really get it under control in five days,” Cai said. “I have food that I stockpiled earlier and community officials said we can go out to buy food at a specific time, but we haven’t been given guidance on how it will work yet.”
The district where Foxconn’s factories are located wasn’t included in the eight districts to be placed under lockdown, according to the government’s statement.
Still, the plant is in an area already classed as high risk, which means lockdown-like movement restrictions remain in place. The company has been operating a so-called closed loop at the site for some time, where workers are effectively confined to their dorms and the production line, with no contact with the outside. The systems allow factories to maintain production amid Covid lockdowns, but the requirement to seal workers off has led to unrest both in Zhengzhou and elsewhere.