Ningbo offers incentives for Spring Festival

A maximum allowance of 500 yuan ($78.60) per person will be given to non-local employees who remain in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, to celebrate Spring Festival. The allowance is designed to reduce the spread of the coronavirus and promote production during the festival, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Ningbo municipal government.

The allowance — 100 yuan per person per day, with no more than 500 yuan total per person — will be given to employees who work on the front lines of industrial enterprises above a designated size, trade enterprises above designated size and major project construction enterprises in Ningbo from Jan 26 to Feb 10 and who have paid their social insurance during December in Ningbo.

Enterprises and industry associations are encouraged to give employees some social welfare, such as discount coupons for accommodations and catering or free coupons for movies and tourist attractions.

An allowance of no more than 500,000 yuan will be given to manufacturing enterprises whose total industrial output value in the first quarter of 2022 increased by 10 percent or more year-on-year and whose total industrial output value was more than 10 million yuan in the first quarter of this year.

Ningbo reported six new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing its total number of cases so far to 57.

"I am grateful for those who are busy working on the COVID-19 front lines," Nyameko Ishmael Bottoman, a South African teacher, said when delivering daily goods to medical and epidemic prevention workers in the city's Zhenhai district on Wednesday.

Bottoman has been living in the city for five years and is now an English language instructor at the Zhejiang Business Technology Institute.

"Because of their hard work, my life in Ningbo hasn't changed despite the COVID-19 outbreak. Ningbo at large is still a safe place to live and work," he said. "All I can do is my small part and diligently follow the control and prevention measures and policies."

Yu Yin in Ningbo and Fang Xiaoying in Hangzhou contributed to this story.