How Factories Survive From Coronavirus?

By Author: Linda Yue
Total Articles: 2
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In January 2020, most of people in Chinese factories are ready to go back to their native place to enjoy the Spring Festival. At that time, no one would have thought they nearly couldn’t go back to the factory. The cause of all this is the new Coronavirus Disease, the number of people infected with which is rising all over the world.

1. Discovery of Coronavirus Disease 2019
In December 2019, multiple unexplained pneumonia patients were found in Wuhan City, Hubei Province. At the beginning, many people didn’t care and thought it was a common infection. Until the cases slowly increase. On December 31, experts from the National Health Commission arrived in Wuhan for virus research. On January 12, 2020, the World Health Organization officially named the new coronavirus causing the Wuhan pneumonia epidemic as “2019-nCoV”.

2. Epidemic prevention and control
2.1 During the Spring Festival holiday
On January 15, a first-level emergency response was initiated within the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On January 22, the first cases of new crown pneumonia infection were diagnosed ...
... in the United States and Hong Kong. The next day, Wuhan was closed. City buses, subways, ferries, and long-distance passenger terminals are temporarily closed. Subsequently, the number of infections kept increasing. Those who stayed in Wuhan stayed at home and didn’t go out. People traveling from Wuhan to all parts of the country were forced to quarantine.

January 24 is the traditional Chinese New Year. It was originally a day of reunion. But because of the coronavirus this time, every family closed their doors and didn’t go out. All plans to visit relatives and friends have been cancelled. All Chinese people had the most deserted Spring Festival in history. In order to minimize the crowd infection, the government proposes to extend the Spring Festival holiday and extend the statutory holiday from January 31 to February 2.

2.2 After the Spring Festival holiday
On February 3, after obtaining government permission, some factories began to start working one after another. However, in severely affected areas, no one is allowed to leave. This also means that many people in the factory cannot rework on time. Moreover, even after returning to the factory, they need to be isolated for 14 days under the supervision of government personnel before they can go out to work.

When it first started, most factories had less than 50% of production capacity. In this case, we can only release recruitments urgently and find ways to increase productivity. At the same time, in accordance with government requirements, factories need to prepare necessary protective equipment such as forehead thermometers and face masks. All staff must wear masks during work. Every morning and evening, we will take their temperature measurement and registration. Lunch and dinner are sent to the office area by a specified person to avoid intensive dining in the restaurant. After work, the workers returned to their dorms to rest. During this period, the cleaning people will disinfect the office area.

Chinese factory
3. How factories resume production under coronavirus?
In February, almost all Chinese companies struggled. Some employees are trapped in Hubei Province and some employees are being quarantined. Although they are not at work, they cannot bring any benefit to the enterprise. However, the government has stipulated that for workers who cannot arrive on time due to special reasons, enterprises still need to pay them. Some companies rely on policy advantages to obtain bank loans to temporarily overcome this difficulty. But most factories can only choose find solutions by themselves.

At this time, factories were forced to shut down because of the high cost. Huaisong Industrial is a membrane keypad manufacturer which locates in Dongguan, a place called the “World Factory”. We faced with huge cost pressures, including rents, utilities, wages, etc., some are extra costs due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019. In addition, there are not enough on-the-job workers, and we face the risk of delayed delivery for orders before Spring Festival. But through a series of emergency measures we adopted, these were finally resolved. So far, the capacity of our factory has returned to normal. Orders before the year were gradually delivered, and orders from this year began to be produced.

4. How we work inside the factory?
On March 16, Dongguan was classified as a low-risk area. The order of production and living will be fully restored, and road traffic restrictions will be lifted. Although we are in a low-risk area, we still require all staff to wear face masks, work and eat in separate areas. Until the epidemic is not over, we cannot relax our vigilance. Although the situation in China has been basically controlled, the global epidemic has broken out. This has caused many people to enter China from abroad, resulting in multiple cases of imported infections abroad. Here, we also share some epidemic prevention and control experiences to everyone.

Avoid crowded public places. Avoid contact with patients with feverish respiratory infection.

Wash your hands frequently. Especially when hands are contaminated with respiratory secretions, after touching public facilities, after taking care of patients with fever, respiratory infections, or vomiting and diarrhea.

Don’t spit. Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or elbow when sneezing or coughing.

Strengthen exercise, work regularly, and maintain indoor air circulation.

If you have symptoms of a respiratory infection such as fever or cough, rest at home. Reduce outings and travel. Ventilate your room when the weather is good. Avoid going to work, classes and parties when you are sick.

Finally, I hope you are safe and healthy while reading this article. Wish that the global epidemic will pass and we can resume normal life as soon as possible.

I'm Linda work in HuaiSong Industrial, a membrane keypad manufacturer in China.https://www.ixqprint.com/