Dongguan factory center locks down

BEIJING — China’s worst Covid-19 outbreak since the initial wave of the pandemic worsened Tuesday with a major factory city ordering production halts.

Recent outbreaks in 28 provinces have infected more than 15,000 people and stem primarily from the highly transmissible omicron variant, China’s National Health Commission said Tuesday, according to state media. China has 31 province-level regions.

Although the northern province of Jilin accounts for most of the cases, the latest outbreak has hit major cities such as the financial center of Shanghai and technology manufacturing hub Shenzhen.

On Tuesday, Dongguan city in the southern province of Guangdong ordered employees of businesses to work from home and locked down residential areas, permitting only necessary activities such as buying groceries and taking virus tests.

The city took a targeted approach to production halts. In industrial parks that haven’t reported cases, businesses can maintain basic production under stringent virus control measures. Factory workers often live in dormitories near their workplace.

In areas reporting local cases, businesses must stop production, the announcement said. The measures took effect at noon on March 15 and will last for about a week, until the end of day March 21.

Guangdong province produced about 24% of China’s exports in 2020, according to the latest available official data accessed through Wind Information. The database showed that among cities its size, Dongguan was the fifth-largest contributor to China’s GDP last year, with 1.09 trillion yuan ($170.31 billion) in output.

Dongguan reported nine confirmed Covid cases and 46 asymptomatic cases for Monday. The nearby tech hub of Shenzhen, also in Guangdong province, reported 60 new cases, including asymptomatic ones.

The total local case count for Monday in mainland China included 3,507 new confirmed Covid cases and 1,647 asymptomatic ones, mostly in the northern province of Jilin. That’s more than double from a day earlier.

On Tuesday, China’s bureau of statistics spokesperson downplayed the impact of the Covid-related restrictions on economic activity, after reporting better-than-expected data for January and February.

Economists have said China’s zero-Covid policy — using travel restrictions and neighborhood lockdowns to control outbreaks — affects consumer spending more than manufacturing.

But the latest wave of cases surpasses the pockets of outbreaks China has dealt with since the height of the initial pandemic in early 2020.