[ad_1]
Tuy Phan Ha, a border city near Russia, has become a new hot spot in China.
At a lumber factory in Tuy Fei Ha, the distant northeast city of China, about a dozen workers are sawing and fixing lumber. In high season, the factory in this small town in Heilongjiang province always has 200 workers. Now, fear of nCoV causes two-thirds of workers to quit.
“They made it clear that ‘we are very afraid, we no longer want to come to work’, but we cannot force the workers,” said Su Wei, head of the production and sales division of the wood-processing factory.
Worker sawing wood at a factory in Tuy Phan Ha, a China-Russia border town, on April 15. Photos: Reuters
Although the number of nCoV cases in the interior of China decreased dramatically, the number of imported cases increased, most of them Chinese citizens who returned home. Although Phan Ha is only 120 km from the Russian port city of Vladivostok, it is a new hot spot for nCoV due to the influx of Chinese from Russia into their home countries.
The city began restricting citizens from traveling on April 8, allowing residents to leave home only three times a day, disrupting lives and economic strains. As of April 13, Tuy Phan Ha registered 322 cases of 326 imported cases in Heilongjiang.
Huang Jinman, 45, a carpentry worker, used to worry about going back to work, but company precautions helped erase his fears.
“They give masks, they monitor our body temperature on a daily basis. We don’t go anywhere other than houses and workshops to minimize contact with others,” Huang said.
The city quarantine officer took an nCoV sample on April 16. Photo: Reuters.
Although Tuy Phan Ha is more than 2,000 km from Wuhan and for several weeks, when the capital of Hubei province was cordoned off due to its epidemic in China, the people of Tuy Phan Ha were sure that they were safe.
“Covid-19 seems to be a long way off,” Su said.
But in late March, things changed when the first case of imported infections appeared. On April 2, the Heilongjiang Health Department reported 4 additional cases. Su said that workers from outside the province began to leave, about half of the factory employees disappeared. Clients also rushed.
Orders were down 30%, Su said, but are still considered successful compared to many small businesses in the city that rely on trade with Russia, which is much more affected. Pan, a Russian import wholesaler, said orders fell 80%.
“No one has asked for anything,” he said, standing at a stall in the Russian Yige’er market, where importers and wholesalers of Tuy Phan Ha gathered.
The market was empty on April 16, many stalls closed. Those who continue to stay are low because customers may be exposed to nCoV.
“I was so scared that I didn’t want to let them into the store,” said Yang, the owner of a Russian grocery store. “How not to be afraid”.
The owner of a grocery store in Tuy Phan Ha wears a mask to receive guests on April 15. Photos: Reuters
In a corner of Tuy Phan Ha, near an old Russian language school, several dozen unemployed workers wait for work, hoping someone will hire them as day laborers.
The Tuy Fei government informed the workers that they must apply for a work permit, but Zhang Mifu, one of the people standing on the side of the road, said that he and others could not.
“I had no money, so I had to go out and find a job,” he said.
Hồng Hạnh (The O Reuters)
