Residents line up for COVID-19 nucleic acid tests in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province on March 11, 2022. China is facing extensive domestic flare-ups, registering 1,100 infections, including silent carriers the day after counting more than 500 cases for three consecutive days. Photo: IC

Officials in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, on Sunday warned of more COVID-19 cases and potential spillovers related to a local cluster of infections at a logistics park in the city that has seen nearly 50 cases and related infections in three other areas.

Meanwhile, Chinese officials have also taken various measures, including inspection of logistics facilities and testing of relevant workers across the country, to stop the spread of the virus through packages.

Since the first COVID-19 case of the latest outbreak in Hangzhou was found to be a staffer working at the SF Express logistics park, a total of 49 employees at the park have been confirmed as infected and related cases have been reported in at least three other regions in China. 

Hangzhou reported the first case on Wednesday. In the following three days, another 48 new cases were found the same logistics park, according to health officials of Hangzhou. 

Two other cities in Zhejiang - Huzhou and Jiaxing - as well as Zunyi of Southwest China's Guizhou Province, have reported COVID-19 cases related to the SF Express Park. 

"This round of the epidemic has occurred in multiple locations, infecting both people and the environment across a wide range in a hidden way. It is the most severe and complex epidemic in the city this year," Wang Xuchu, vice head of the Hangzhou Health Commission, said on Sunday. 

All the cases found so far belong to the same transmission chain, and the source of infection is very likely to be contaminated imported goods in the logistics park, which infected the personnel handling the goods and then spread among other people, Wang noted. 

The environment at the logistics park has been badly infected, authorities added, and employees have frequent contact with each other, with some lacking proper protection. Therefore, it's possible that there will be successive cases, and given that a great number of employees who work at the site live outside the park or even in neighboring counties, spillover risks cannot be ruled out.  

On Friday, SF Express announced it would suspend courier services from the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions to the Chinese mainland. 

To prevent COVID-19 from spreading through packages, the State Post Bureau will organize a month-long inspection of mail and express package handling sites across the country, said the bureau's head Ma Junsheng. 

The capital Beijing's Xicheng district has carried out detailed examination of 50 delivery handling sites of nine courier service providers in the past few days. A total of 700 couriers with SF Express in Xicheng have taken nucleic acid tests, all returning negative results on Sunday. 

Global Times