Irish Examiner View: Covid lockdown in China has wider implications

The seven-day lockdown at the Foxconn facility has thrust the unwelcome spectre of Covid-19 back in the spotlight again.

In this photo taken from video footage and released by Hangpai Xingyang, people with suitcases and bags are seen leaving from a Foxconn compound in Zhengzhou in central China's Henan Province on Saturday, October 29, 2022. Picture: Hangpai Xingyang via AP

The news from China this week is ominous, with recent reports of Covid-related security measures peaking with the announcement of a seven-day lockdown at the Foxconn Technology Group’s main plant in Zhengzhou.

If the name is familiar, it is because the plant is the biggest iPhone manufacturer in the world, and the lockdown is bound to have an impact on production.

While that has significant implications for Apple and others, the fact that China is imposing such a sweeping Covid lockdown should give the rest of us pause also.

At the height of the lockdown here, the focus was on getting out the other side in one piece. It was such a disconcerting time that people could be forgiven for wanting to postpone long-term considerations. 

Yet even then the point was being made that we would have to live with Covid and its variants for quite some time.

Confirmation that China is ramping up its counter-measures reinforces that point, and shows us that the age of Covid is far from over.