Frozen fish Photo: Xinhua

Another inland city in China reported a case of frozen food packaging testing positive for COVID-19, which is related to the case of a cold storage loader in Tianjin Municipality confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 on Sunday. 

In an imported cold chain food sampling test in Taiyuan, North China's Shanxi Province, on Saturday, a sample from the outer box of a frozen ribbonfish tested positive for COVID-19. The box had been imported from India, and was sold to Taiyuan via Tianjin. 

The city immediately launched epidemic prevention and control emergency plan, and sealed all frozen ribbonfish involved in the batch. All related products and their environments have been fully disinfected and sterilized. All close contacts have been isolated.

All relevant personnel tested negative for COVID-19 so far.

Earlier on Sunday, a loader in a cold storage facility in Tianjin tested positive for COVID-19 after the outer packaging of cold food products imported from overseas was found to be contaminated with coronavirus. 

Moreover, the city of Dezhou in East China's Shandong Province also reported coronavirus detected on the packaging of food products imported via Tianjin. 

China has detected novel coronavirus on the packaging of frozen food and a number of related cases of industry workers who do not have effective protection in the past few months. Similar cases have been reported in East China's Qingdao and Yantai, South China's Shenzhen, Northeast China's Dalian, and capital city Beijing. 

Guidelines on COVID-19 prevention in the production and operation of cold-chain food issued by China's National Health Commission confirmed live coronavirus can be imported through long-distance transportation and infect cold-chain workers, and suggested extra personal hygiene requirements for loading and unloading workers. 

Earlier in September, China suspended imports from 56 cold-chain food companies in 19 countries and regions where workers have been infected with COVID-19. 

Global Times