China’s hi-tech hub Shenzhen gets back to work despite fears deadly coronavirus will keep spreading

Hundreds of thousands of workers have travelled back to their workplace after the extended Lunar New Year break despite the risk from the illness

Southern megacity has told businesses to seek permission to resume operations as authorities try to curb spread of virus

Reading Time:5 minutes

Many Chinese workers have delayed their return or worked from home. Photo: Bloomberg

Alice Yanin Shanghai,Phoebe Zhangin ShenzhenandLaura Zhou

Published: 12:22am, 11 Feb 2020Updated: 6:59pm, 13 Feb 2020

Shenzhen, a hi-tech manufacturing hub on China’s southern border, was on heightened alert on Monday as hundreds of thousands of workers returned to their jobs after the extended Lunar New Year holiday.

Although the city is almost 1,000km (600 miles) away from Wuhan, where the deadly coronavirus outbreak began two months ago, the sheer number of people on the move over the period has raised fears that the disease, which has infected more than 40,000 people and killed over 300, would spread further.

However, the latest figures published by the World Health Organisation on Monday suggested that the number of new infections recorded was starting to slow.

According to the WHO statistics, the rate of increase stayed at a high level in late January but has now fallen to below 20 per cent.

The slowdown has raised hope that the spread of the virus may enter a new phase as spring arrives.

Huang Xiaoxian, who works for a Chinese finance company, travelled over 300km from Shaoguan, a city in northern Guangdong on Sunday, to return to Shenzhen.

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