Fuhong Precision Component and New Wing Interconnect Technology, located inside two industrial parks, were allowed to resume operations as they satisfy Covid-19 prevention standards. Both firms produce electric components for Taiwanese electronics contract manufacturer Foxconn, a major assembler for several Apple products.

Both firms have to abide by Covid-19 prevention protocols like maintaining distances between workers, providing them accommodation and testing them for Covid-19.

As originally planned, eight firms in four industrial parks across Bac Giang were supposed to resume operations Friday. But only four firms filed documents to have their production process evaluated, and only two among them, Fuhong and New Wing, made the cut.

Nguyen Xuan Ngoc, deputy head of the management board of Bac Giang industrial parks, said it would take weeks before all local industrial zones could resume operations due to strict evaluation procedures.

Bac Giang, home to 13 Samsung suppliers and Apple partners Foxconn and Luxshare, is the most severely hit locality in Vietnam's latest Covid-19 wave, recording 1,927 cases over the past month. It is followed by neighbor Bac Ninh with 736 cases.

Bac Giang had to shut four local industrial parks: Van Trung, Quang Chau, Dinh Tram and Song Khe-Noi Hoang starting May 18 after the province recorded a staggeringly high number of new coronavirus cases due to the parks' large scale and high number of workers. The province has around 240,000 people employed at its six industrial parks.