“More than half of our staff in the mall and the hotel are positive,” said a senior executive at a firm that manages one of Beijing’s largest retail complexes.

The executive, who declined to be identified, said the mall was still open with remaining staff splitting into two teams and only one team working a particular shift.

The split-shift system is also being deployed by other companies, Chinese regulators and state-owned banks.

JD.com, which is headquartered in Beijing and employs more than 540,000 people, has sent antigen test kits to its staff and is asking those who are sick to stay home, sources at the company told Reuters.

At Sephora China, which has 321 stores across 89 cities on the mainland, each store is handling their staffing issues in accordance with their situation, said a spokesperson for the LVMH

‘Deeply frustrating’

At another Beijing shopping centre, a gym belonging to the U.S. Powerhouse chain said on Tuesday it would be closed until Dec. 25 to disinfect the premises and to protect the safety of staff and members.

“The spread of the virus is severe and there is a big risk of infection,” said the gym. It had just reopened five days ago after having had to shut for more than two weeks due to district-wide Covid curbs.

“It’s deeply frustrating. Businesses are having to close due to staff being sick, even though they can legally be open,” said Noah

“Blame is starting to flow from companies’ (foreign) headquarters to the team on the ground in China, with HQ asking ‘why can’t the China operations navigate these restrictions?’ All other markets have had to adjust and did so successfully,” he said.

Some factories and eateries are retaining Covid-19 curbs, including so-called closed-loop systems that isolate staff from the wider world, until they get a clearer picture of just how workplaces will be affected.

At Volkswagen, which has seen its plants in China heavily disrupted by lockdowns this year, production is currently stable but the automaker has reduced office attendance and is asking staff to stay 1.5 metres apart whenever possible, a spokesperson said.

Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio also said its production was normal, although it is bracing for infections.

“We have sent trucks of medicines and equipment to the factory to be well prepared,” Nio’s president Qin Lihong told a media roundtable on Monday.

National health officials have so far made few comments on workplace conditions, only urging that high-risk areas should be much more narrowly defined, while production or business operations continue elsewhere.

Julian Evans

“So even if the shift away from zero-Covid will benefit most businesses over the medium-term, it doesn’t provide immediate relief and the next few months will still be very challenging.”