People wait for COVID-19 vaccine injections in Beijing on Sunday. Since the beginning of January 2021, the city has started vaccination in specific groups of people in industries such as catering services and cold-chain transportation. Photo: cnsphoto

Local police in Beijing's Fangshan district are investigating an operator of a wholesale food department surnamed Yang who is suspected of replacing the import labels of seafood products with domestic logos in order to escape supervision for cold-chain products, potentially risking spreading the coronavirus, according to media reports.

The investigation came after the recent COVID-19 flareups in Beijing with some cases being related to cold-chain logistics, Pan Xuhong, a spokesperson for the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, said at Friday's press conference, Beijing Youth Daily reported. 

According to Pan, Yang replaced imported labels for some seafood products from a country in Southeast Asia with domestic logos. 

Pan stressed that the police will seriously deal with individuals who refuse to follow or disrupt the implementation of epidemic prevention measures. 

Beijing has tightened COVID-19 test requirements for cold-chain logistics workers, and workers in the imported cold-chain food industry now have to hold COVID-19 nucleic acid negative test certificates taken within three days instead of the previous seven days. 

Meanwhile, the city has organized an investigation into imported cold-chain food production and operation units, and will strictly deal with any violations. 

Beijing has reported seven new confirmed COVID-19 cases and five asymptomatic infections, with five cases related to cold-chain logistics.