Macau suspends Brazilian meat imports after Hong Kong alert

The Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) has suspended the import of Brazilian frozen meat by a company after a batch tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in Hong Kong.

The IAM underlined that it tested samples from the inside and outside of packages of beef from Brazil and pork from Poland, all of which came back negative for the new coronavirus, responsible for the covid-19 pandemic, according to a statement released on Tuesday.

The IAM assured that it has been regularly testing, since July 2020, samples of meat packages and other frozen products, without any positive test results in the last three months.

On Monday, the Center for Food Safety in neighboring Hong Kong announced that three samples of beef from Brazil and one sample of pork from Poland tested positive for the presence of SARS-CoV-2.

The center ordered the elimination of the entire batch and the disinfection of the warehouses where the meat was located.

On February 14, the Macau Customs announced the arrest of two men, accused of smuggling ten tons of frozen meat.

SA patrols were reinforced to combat the illegal entry of people and goods, “preventing the entry of the coronavirus into Macau through illegal activities”, indicated the SA.

Chinese state media have regularly reported fines imposed on traders who illegally imported frozen meat.

On January 4, Chinese police imposed a ten-day detention sentence on two traders in a city in the southwest of the country, accused of failing to submit a batch of chicken legs sent from Brazil to health checks.

The Chinese government said that the recent outbreaks of the Ómicron variant of covid-19 in the country are due, in part, to products from abroad.

However, foreign experts have stressed that the virus is mainly spread through respiratory droplets, when infected people breathe, talk, cough and sneeze.

Covid-19 has caused at least 5,892,084 deaths worldwide since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the latest report by the Agence France-Presse.

The respiratory disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, detected in late 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China.

The rapidly spreading and mutating Ómicron variant has become dominant in the world since it was first detected in November in South Africa.

Fonte: Macau Business

Para ler o artigo original completo, acesse:

https://www.macaubusiness.com/macau-suspends-brazilian-meat-imports-after-hong-kong-alert/

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