China increases control over imports of refrigerated products due to COVID-19

Due to Covid-19, China is increasing its control over imports of refrigerated products. According to Spanish news agency EFE, a new regulation was published on November 9 by China’s health commission to intensify the control and disinfection of refrigerated products imported by the country in order to prevent further Covid-19 outbreaks. The Asian country says it has recorded several cases in which the SARS -CoV-2 Coronavirus survived on import packaging and caused infections.

The new regulation favors the thorough disinfection of refrigerated product packaging and the adequate protection of personnel in contact with these materials, in addition to an increase in health inspections throughout the chain – from products’ arrival at the port until their sale.

The document states “if the result of an analysis (of an imported frozen product) is positive, the product must be returned or destroyed, according to the regulations”.

Likewise, Chinese authorities emphasize the need to record the path that each of these products takes to facilitate the tracking of possible infections.

According to EFE, the announcement comes a day after the local press announced a new case was detected by a docker in the port of the northeastern city of Tianjin who had contact with packages containing the remains of the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

In addition, on November 7th, authorities in the city of Dezhou, in eastern Shandong province, claimed to have found traces of the virus during a random inspection of Germany’s frozen pork packages that arrived at Tianjin port on October 19. This means the virus would have survived on the packaging material for almost three weeks.

On September 24, two dockers in the eastern port of Qingdao contracted the virus when they came into contact with packaging that contained traces of the virus. Weeks later, his infection resulted in an outbreak in the city.

In recent months, several frozen products from countries like Ecuador or Brazil have alerted Chinese authorities.

Last August, the central province of Shanxi announced a ban on the purchase, sale, and use of white shrimp from Ecuador after detecting several cases of coronavirus in its packaging. Days before, the city of Shenzhen, in the southeast, detected traces of the virus in packages of frozen chicken wings from Brazil and, a month earlier, in seafood from Ecuador.

To keep the pandemic in check, China continues to tightly control both passengers and goods as they enter and leave the country. According to data released today by the National Health Commission, the total number of active patients infected in mainland China is 424, of which 8 are in serious condition.

Sources: Port Portal / EFE Agency

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