BEIJING (AP) NOV, 24– Pandemic lockdowns are sweeping across China, including in a city where factory workers clashed with police this week as the number of COVID-19 cases hit a record daily.
Residents of eight districts in Zhengzhou, home to 6.6 million people, have been ordered to stay home for five days from Thursday unless they are shopping for food or seeking medical care. What we call the daily mass inspections are ordered. In clashes on Tuesday and Wednesday, Zhengzhou police beat workers protesting wage disputes at Apple’s largest iPhone factory in an industrial area near the city. The Taiwan-based factory owner said on Thursday that Foxconn apologized for what it called a “computer system entry error” and would guarantee wages consistent with the agreed formal employment bill. The number of new COVID cases increased by 31,444 in the past 24 hours, the National Health Commission said Thursday. This is the highest number in a single day since the coronavirus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019. The number of daily cases is steadily increasing. This week, authorities reported his first death from COVID-19 in China in six months, bringing the total to 5,232.