Small commodities hub hit by closures linked to COVID-19 flare-ups

The city of Yiwu in east China's Zhejiang province, the world's largest wholesale market of small commodities, has closed all indoor venues, suspended public transport, and locked down certain areas to deal with COVID-19 flare-ups.

As of 9am today, the major manufacturing export hub had reported 135 positive cases since August 2.

The public transport system will be suspended for three days starting today, the local government said. It also has suspended some public gatherings and dining at restaurants.

The city's signature Yiwu market is operating normally, Zhejiang China Commodities City, its operator, said. People can still enter the market if they present negative PCR reports taken within 24 hours.

The Yiwu-Europe freight trains are also running normally, with six trains arriving and departing on August 4 as scheduled, local government said.

The delivery service is largely unaffected except in some locked-down areas, according to ZTO Express, a major logistics company.

A ZTO Express logistics station in Yiwu reported receiving around 400,000 packages on August 4. Its staff take PCR tests daily and routinely disinfect all packages.

Around 30 million packages are being sent from Yiwu each day, maintaining the normal level, said Yiwu Post Bureau.

On August 4, 1.6 million packages were delivered to recipients in Yiwu while another 300,000 were suspended as their destinations were in locked-down areas, the bureau said.