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As the outbreak occurred, firms were only allowed to operate when they could arrange for employees to work and live inside the factory. However, many firms were unable to find suitable accommodation for thousands of workers. Recently, Bac Giang authorities allowed workers who live in safe locations to return to work without having to stay at the factories.
"This policy has been applied since June 28. After three days, 18,000 people returned to work," Ngoc said.
Many factories in the supply chains for Apple and Samsung also started working again. After the outbreak, Foxconn's workforce dropped from 30,000 to over 6,000 and Luxshare-ICT's workforce dropped from 22,000 to 7,000.
There are also plans to organise shuttle buses to transfer workers living from other provinces and cities to Bac Giang. The provincial Management Board of Industrial Parks gave its approval to 20 firms with 3,000 workers. For workers who are from other provinces, firms must have dormitories or rent guesthouses for them.
"Every day, about 2,000-3,000 workers will return to work. By the end of July, about 60,000 people will return to work, accounting for 45% of the total number of workers before the outbreak," Ngoc said.
Nguyen Duc Long, deputy head of the Management Board of Industrial Parks in Bac Ninh also said over 900 firms with 255,000 workers in their province have resumed operations. The number of workers before the outbreak was 330,000.
In the coming time, Bac Ninh will continue to provide support to help firms resume operations. They are also planning to build more industrial parks and grant licenses to various projects with investments of over USD200m.