“We made early preparations to purchase tens of thousands of masks as soon as we knew that this was happening. If you have a sufficient supply of masks, workers will naturally be more willing to come to work for you.”

Analysts said that the US tariffs on Chinese imports in effect last year not only adversely affected direct exports to the US, but also covered 98 per cent of Hong Kong’s total re-exports of Chinese-produced goods to the US. In December, Wong said his company bought manufacturing facilities in Penang, Malaysia for the development and diversification of its manufacturing and supply chain capabilities.

“[The] mobility of people as well as logistics bottlenecks should be eased. It is necessary to loosen restrictions on freight logistics and promote the coordinated resumption of supply chain operations,” Xi said on Sunday.

Initially, many migrant factory workers from the countryside had planned to return to work in urban areas in the February 7-10 period, having typically spent two weeks visiting their families in their hometowns to celebrate the Lunar New Year festival.

Wong’s Dongguan facility, which employs 3,000 workers, has returned to around 60 per cent of production, and is expected to reach full operational capacity before end of February.

Some competitors, though, had to wait until February 17 to resume production, meaning they have only returned to around 20 per cent of their capacity, according to Wong.

“It is possible that some companies are helpless if their bosses are still stuck in Wuhan or Hubei,” Wong said. “You wouldn’t be able to do anything about it and that would be very problematic. Your recovery would definitely be much slower.”

But the number of new cases reported each day has fallen to single digits over the past week, and on Monday, Guangdong lowered its public health emergency response from the highest level of Grade I, which had been in place for a month to Grade II, a move which was matched by five other provinces.

Once they return to the production lines, workers are still required to pass regular temperature checks, and they must also wear a face mask and use hand sanitiser.

“We have laid down very strict steps to ensure workers who come back will be screened so that they are clean and free from infection,” Wong added. “Authorities could make a surprise inspection in a few weeks and suspend factory operations if there is a compliance problem.”

Manufacturers across Guangdong are still faced with similar difficulties in restoring production, with the owner of a lighting factory in Dongguan expecting to only able to resume full production by mid-March.

Factory owner Sam, who only provided his first name due to fears of reprisals by local authorities, said only 70 of his 100 workers had returned to work as of Monday, which will result in a delay in production and revenue.

“Even with 70 per cent of workers back on board now, if one of my suppliers cannot deliver, I will still be stuck and cannot complete the production of a product,” Sam said. “This means I will have to explain to my clients that I need more time. Some are understanding, but others can say ‘it’s not my problem that you have an epidemic and cannot deliver on time.’”

Sharon Wu, a sales representative for Xinyu MLS Lighting Technology, which makes LED chip packaging as well as LED tubes and bulbs which are sold to lighting factories in China, confirmed all of their production lines had resumed operations although some workers had yet to return to the factory in Zhongshan, another city in Guangdong province.