Travellers visit Yangchenghu Expressway Service Area along the Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, Oct. 8, 2020. Photo: Xinhua

Staffers at businesses in the Suzhou Industrial Park, the major international manufacturing hub in the Yangtze River Delta region, went through a round of efficient nucleic acid tests on Monday involving about 1 million personnel in the park after four COVID-19 cases were reported in the city on Sunday.

Inside the park, HeJian Technology (Suzhou) Co, a major semiconductor foundry firm, temporarily halted production after an employee was suspected of getting infected with the coronavirus, casting concerns about whether strict epidemic prevention measures will disrupt business operations in the region.

The COVID-19 infections in Suzhou were confirmed to be of the Omicron variant, the local health authorities said. The city reported another seven confirmed patients and one asymptomatic case on Monday, and screening tests for key groups and venues are underway.

While the situation remains unclear, industry insiders and business representatives told the Global Times on Monday that the epidemic prevention and control measures would have a limited impact on local businesses, and production resumption was already underway to fill new orders for the world market.

In responding to the flare-up, the 278 square kilometer major manufacturing hub in the Yangtze River Delta region completed the nucleic acid testing of nearly 1 million people in the park between 6.30 am and about 10.30 am on Monday - less than 12 hours after four cases were reported in Suzhou, the Global Times learned.

The response speed in Suzhou, which accounted for 6.5 percent of China's foreign trade in 2021 and is home to many multinationals, showed just why foreign investors are confident in putting their supply chains in China, knowing it is a safe bet amid global supply chain hiccups, analysts said.

There are about 5,000 foreign-funded enterprises in the park, mainly involved in high-end manufacturing and the electronic information sector, including artificial intelligence and semiconductor manufacturing.

Almost all the enterprises in the park have resumed work, Jin told the Global Times.

As for HeJian Technology, company-wide PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests have been conducted. Once the tests are completed, the company will resume production as soon as possible with local authorities' approval, the company stated.

The United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), the parental company of HeJian Technology, reiterated on Monday its first-quarter financial guidance will not be affected by the event.

Some foreign companies with factories in the industrial park told the Global Times on Monday that they have adjusted their business operations in accordance with the local requirements, believing that production resumption will not be disrupted.

Employees at BeiAng Tech, an international air-purifier supplier based in the Suzhou Industrial Park, have all taken the nucleic acid tests in accordance with the local arrangements.

"We are confident with the management capability of the park and are not worried that the epidemic will have a substantial impact on normal business operations," Zhang Yan, co-founder of BeiAng Tech, told the Global Times on Monday.

Zhang said that there will be a certain impact on monthly production but not the long term. There are orders from abroad that weren't delivered before the Chinese New Year, and the company is ramping up efforts to deliver the goods.

A manager with a US company in the manufacturing sector told the Global Times on condition of anonymity that all the staff have taken nucleic acid tests as the government requested and business has fully resumed.

While the city's epidemic situation remains unclear, the person is not worried that the business will be halted, believing that "with timely and effective epidemic prevention measures such as closed-loop management in place, the impact will be limited."

The Suzhou government on Monday held a press conference on epidemic prevention and control, in which it announced that the city had entered a "wartime state," while pledging to separate ordinary personnel from those in the closed and controlled areas, and block the transmission chain of the epidemic.