Apple On Lockdown In China Due To CoronaVirus
Rapheal Charlton
Senior officials killed hopes for a lifting of the draconian measures during a news conference on Saturday, reaffirming China's commitment to the strict lockdowns, mandatory quarantines and testing and business closures that Beijing has used for years in a bid to keep a lid on coronavirus outbreaks.
Chinese authorities reported 1,337 locally transmitted cases of coronavirus across dozens of mainland cities on Monday, an outbreak driven by the fast-spreading "stealth variant" of BA.2, a subvariant of omicron. Shenzhen reported 75 new cases; the lockdown affects roughly 17.5 million people who live in the city, which neighbors Hong Kong.
But that doesn't mean the coronavirus outbreak is done affecting the supply chains of Apple and other companies. Bloomberg said that a two-week lockdown in Malaysia will also result in supply constraints because Murata Manufacturing, Renesas Electronics, Ibiden, Micron, Texas Instruments and other companies have factories there.
The stock market rally attempt suffered a big blow Monday as energy, commodity and tech stocks all retreated as China's new coronavirus lockdowns overshadowed Russia's Ukraine invasion and a looming Fed rate hike.
FIH Mobile, a unit of Apple supplier Foxconn said on Wednesday zero-COVID was a key reason it was likely to post a full-year loss as its parent continues to grapple with a lockdown around its major iPhone factory in central China that has fuelled worker discontent.
The epidemic first dealt a severe blow to tourism and consumption. Less fatal but more contagious than the SARS virus in 2003, the novel coronavirus is more widespread, triggering a lockdown of Hubei province on Jan. 23, followed by activation of the highest alert levels across China.
UK based The Independent makes reference to the extending of the lockdown period in the UK by a further three weeks as the death rate continues to rise. At present there have been 103,093 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK, with 13,729 deaths in total.
The German government and regional state governors agreed on Wednesday to start relaxing some of the lockdown rules introduced last month to stem the spread of the coronavirus, but said big events would stay banned until 31 August.
In the UK, the pound steadied on Thursday, slipping slightly against the dollar but holding firm against the euro, ahead of an expected announcement about an extension of Britain's lockdown imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus.
The World Health Organization recommends that adults do 30 minutes of physical activity per day and that children be physically active for an hour every day. With so much of the globe's population under lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic, the WHO has offered the following tips on how to stay fit at home:
The United Kingdom's novel coronavirus outbreak is starting to peak but it is too early to lift the lockdown because the virus would "run rampant" if the government eased social distancing measures, Health Minister Matt Hancock said on Thursday.
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