NPR

The Wide-Ranging Ways In Which The Coronavirus Is Hurting Global Business

Some factories are beginning to reopen, but labor shortages continue. In a recent poll of U.S. companies by Shanghai's American Chamber of Commerce, 78% said they lack staff to resume full production.
An entrance to a dormitory for Foxconn workers. China's factories normally ramp up production right after the Lunar New Year, but few workers have returned so far this year.

More than a month and a half into the outbreak of a new coronavirus in China, the country's economy is still largely in lockdown mode, stalling a global manufacturing powerhouse at the heart of nearly every industrial supply chain. As the crisis continues, businesses big and small are struggling with the disruption the pneumonia-like illness has caused, with effects reaching across the globe.

Restaurants and stores have been forcibly shut, many with paper seals to prevent owners from covertly reopening. Factory production lines are at a standstill. Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, has twice extended its holiday break, keeping tens of millions at home in an effort to contain the virus. The death toll from COVID-19 now exceeds 2,000 people.

"If this [outbreak] drags past March, that really becomes quite bad," says China research

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