Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Remote Chinese City Hit by Coronavirus After Weeks of Feeling Safe

Reuters

   A timber mill on China's northeastern border with Russia was buzzing
   with activity this week as dozens of workers sorted, cut and stacked
   logs.

   But many of the mill's machines lay idle -- casualties of China's fight
   to contain the new coronavirus.

   Still, the mill is a story of relative success in Suifenhe, a remote
   city that has recently been hit hard by the coronavirus after being
   spared for weeks as the outbreak ravaged other parts of China.

   The plant in the small city in Heilongjiang province, dotted with
   onion-domed buildings and shop signs in both Chinese and Russian,
   employs about 200 workers when production peaks during the logging
   season.

   But the fear of the coronavirus has kept two-thirds of its workers
   away.

   "They very clearly said, 'We are scared, so we don't want to come,' and
   we can't force them to come," said Su Wei, who heads production and
   sales at the wood-processing factory.

   While China has seen a sharp decline in coronavirus cases, it has been
   battling a surge in imported cases, most of them Chinese nationals
   coming home.

   Suifenhe, just 120 kilometers from the Russian port city of
   Vladivostok, has emerged as a new hot spot because of an influx of
   Chinese citizens arriving from Russia overland.

.