BEIJINGSHANGHAI, Dec 8 Reuters Manufacturers and eateries keen to stay open in China are preferring to err on the side of caution, by retaining COVID19 curbs until they get a clearer picture of just how workplaces will be affected by the easing of stringent measures.

The world39;s second largest economy is bracing for a wave of infections as it relaxes a zeroCOVID policy, winding down a campaign of hunting out and isolating infections as it hands back to individuals most of the task of detection and treatment.

In sparse comments on workplace conditions, however, national health officials have urged that highrisk areas should be much more narrowly defined, while production or business operations continue elsewhere.

We are still under closed loop management with workers not allowed to leave the factory, said a manager at a leading stainless steel mill in eastern China, who gave his surname as Dai.

It wont relax any time soon, he added, saying the mill wanted to hold down infections as much as possible with the system in which workers live and work onsite, isolated from the wider world.

The comments came as businesses told Reuters they were sizing up the new uncertainty, expecting to have to grapple with long periods of absence by sick workers that could crimp operations, perhaps for months longer.

While authorities have scrapped testing as a prerequisite for many activities, hotpot chain Haidilao said it would continue to require daily PCR tests for staff working at…