BEIJING - The local authorities have ordered that iPhone manufacturer Foxconn “resume production and livelihood” in an orderly manner after one of its facilities in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou was put under partial Covid-19 lockdown, resulting in scores of workers fleeing dormitories on foot.

Videos emerged over the weekend of hundreds of workers walking across crop fields and on the side of highways while dragging their personal belongings.

“A (joint working group) dispatched to Foxconn’s industrial park has requested that the firm bear the main responsibility,” said a Monday statement from the Hanghaigang district government, the area in Zhengzhou where Foxconn’s facilities are located.

The company was ordered to take actions including strictly enforcing measures for epidemic prevention and control, and increasing awareness of such measures, according to the statement.

It is unclear how much of production has resumed at the affected facility, but a social media post by the district government on Monday afternoon showed workers back to eating in the company’s cafeteria, albeit with plastic screens between diners.

The district authority said the city has dispatched support, including additional Covid-19 testers and workers to disinfect the facilities, while providing a list of counsellors to offer mental health support.

In a statement, Foxconn said it was providing transportation for workers wanting to leave.

Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan province, where Taiwan-headquartered Foxconn runs three facilities hiring about 300,000 people, has been partially put under lockdown since early October after dozens of Covid-19 cases surfaced.

On Oct 19, the company banned all dining-in at canteens and required workers to have meals in their dormitories, assuring employees that production was going on as per normal.

In the week that ended on Oct 29, Zhengzhou reported close to 167 locally transmitted cases, up from 97 infections in the week before.

Rumours started circulating that there were up to 20,000 infections among Foxconn staff, which the company had refuted as being false.

The city government has said the outbreak in the plant is controllable, but gave no details on how many infections stemmed from the facility.

By the weekend, the opacity in information meant emotions ran high and a fear of infection led some workers to make a run for it.

Videos widely shared on social media showed people walking on the side of highways and across fields because of a lack of transportation, as well as to avoid Covid-19-related checkpoints.

Locals in Henan were seen putting out bottled water and food for these individuals, with signs that said “for the workers of Foxconn” and “safe travel home”.

A woman from Zhoukou, a Henan city some 170km south-east of Zhengzhou, said she was prepared to walk for as long as it took. “I may be tired now but at least I can get home,” she said in a video posted on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

When contacted by The Straits Times on Monday night, she said in a text message: “I am fine now, thank you for your concern.”

At least seven villages and townships across Henan province have posted public notices telling the workers to notify the local authorities before returning to their homes, giving instructions on how to ensure minimal contact with the larger population.

Foxconn, which produces nearly 70 per cent of global iPhone shipments, has previously come under fire for bad working conditions. Between 2010 and 2012, there were numerous reports of bad living conditions and worker suicides. In 2018, there were accusations of inadequate worker training and overtime pay, and excessive amounts of overtime beyond Chinese labour rules.

There are also concerns that the latest incident at the iPhone assembly plant could bear on November’s output by as much as 30 per cent during a traditionally busy time ahead of the year-end holiday season.

Thousands of components are shipped from across the world to Zhengzhou, where they are assembled before getting sent off to the rest of the world.

The firm said on Monday that it plans to tap alternative sites within the city to maintain production levels, Caixin financial magazine reported on Monday. Foxconn operates two other plants in Zhengzhou.