26/2/2020

To our Valued Customers, 

On February 25^th, China reported a total of 523 new cases of Covid-19 infections, but only 11 of these occurred outside Hubei Province indicating the strict control measures have been effective in containing the disease to within the Province where the epidemic originated. 

New guidelines from central government are hat epidemic controls need to be differentiated and implemented with precision, which means control on a county-by-county basis rather than introducing provincewide restrictions. Each county would be classified as either a low, medium or high-risk area, depending on conditions in each locality. In low-risk areas, restrictions on work and daily life should be completely removed. 

As from this week, all AEL-Berkman China offices have resumed normal work, all offices are fully operational with the majority of staff working in offices. Regarding our warehousing and VAS activities, Qingdao / Xiamen / Shenzhen / Hongkong warehouses are fully operational. Shanghai warehouse is operating with less workers, as some who are coming back from other provinces are still in isolation period. Ningbo warehouse will start to accept cargo from medium to high-risk areas like Wenzhou/Taizhou/Hangzhou if truckers can provide valid Health Certificate and Certificate of Resumption of Work, delivery by appointment with 2 days in advance is still recommended. 

Seeing the huge impact on the economy, central Government is urging for orderly resumption of work. More and more factories have resumed work and are trying to increase production capacity when more labour is available. 

It was reported that around 70 % of the enterprises resumed normal production (Source: National Development and Reform Commission, Feb 24th) 

Factories haven’t resumed production or full production mainly due to below reasons: 

1. Some factories who can’t provide a safety working environment to employees (such as inability to provide facial masks / disinfection supply) failed to get permission from local authorities
2. Even with permission, according to quarantine rules, workers from other places have to be isolated for 14 days, limited availability of workforce
3. Cross-province transportation was severely affected, limited the mobility of workers travelling to the workplaces 

We would think situation will be considerably improved from early March. But the challenges of the outbreak for Asia and some European countries are escalating. A sudden rise in cases in South Korea /Italy have raised a red flag. Please refer to the attachment for statistics from China’s NHC last updated 25^th February 2020.

Keeping You Informed!

BR International

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