A beef noodles restaurant in Qingyang, Northwest China's Gansu Province sets up curtains for each table in a bid to block the droplet transmission of the novel coronavirus on Tuesday, as catering businesses nationwide struggle to resume operations amid the campaign against the epidemic. Photo: cnsphoto

Tongxiang, East China's Zhejiang Province, has tested 72 samples from personnel, packages, and environment after a batch of contaminated beef imported from Argentina was sold to the city. All tests returned negative results.

A neighboring city, Huzhou, recently reported that the outer packaging of imiported beef neck bone from Argentina tested positive for COVID-19, and the Zhejiang provincial authorities warned that some of the products have already entered the market in Tongxiang. 

The product in question weighs a total of 840 kilograms and was found to have been used in a local noodle restaurant. Currently, 336.5 kilograms had been cooked, while the remaining 503.5 kilograms of stock has been sealed off. 

A total of 72 samples related to the product, which include six samples taken from personnel, 11 from food packages, and 55 from related environment, have been tested, all returning negative test results, according to the announcement on Saturday. 

The local authorities also required customers who have visited the noodle restaurant since December 11 to take nucleic acid tests to screen out potential infections. 

Global Times