Residents in Ganjingzi district in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province take nucleic acid tests on November 17, 2021. Photo: VCG

The latest COVID-19 flare-up in November in Dalian, a major port city in Northeast China's Liaoning Province was caused by law-violating activities of a cold-chain enterprise, with supervisors found in dereliction of duty, Dalian authorities said on Friday.

The coronavirus contaminated imported food infected cold-chain staff from Dalian Keqiang Food Co, a cold storage and seafood processing company leading to an outbreak of COVID-19 infections in the city, according to the Dalian authorities based on their investigation.

From November 4 to 27, the city recorded 346 local confirmed cases.

Authorities stated that they will address law-breakers and illegal activities showing no leniency.

The lessons learned from the latest flare-up are profound, and have created an extremely negative impact on the local community. The outbreak brought to light loopholes in the city management when it comes to epidemic prevention and control, local authorities said, noting that current protocols were not capable of meeting the requirements of port cities with the high risk for epidemic prevention.

The latest local COVID-19 resurgence in Dalian began on November 4, with the first infected individual a cold storage worker. With a permanent population of 7.45 million, the city has undertaken five rounds of city-wide nucleic acid testing of local residents.

The city recorded 100 new confirmed cases at the beginning of the five days from November 4 to 8, with outbreaks occurring in clusters around companies, families and schools. This is the third outbreak caused by cold storage in the city. 

As a port city, the authorities said they will focus on the entry management and further improve the mechanism for epidemic prevention and control including the whole process closed-loop management of entry personnel and strict disinfection for cold storage facilities.

Global Times