Samples of frozen food imported to China tested positive for coronavirus. After a few such incidents, the Beijing city authorities of China have banned the import of frozen food from some countries where there is a widespread outbreak of coronavirus. This has been reported in the report of CNN.
The Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau said in a statement that customs and local government authorities had repeatedly tested samples of imported frozen food and found the presence of the coronavirus. This has created the risk of spreading the infection. Therefore, the Bureau has instructed not to import frozen food from countries where there is a high rate of corona infection.
Earlier, several health authorities, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said the risk of spreading coronavirus through food was very low. Even then, China has been wary of this from the beginning.
Last June, China suspended imports of poultry from the Tyson Foods plant in the United States. The authorities took this decision after receiving the news of the spread of the infection in the firm of that organization. Corona was identified in a sample test of a consignment of frozen chicken imported from Brazil to the Chinese city of Shenzhen last month. After a few more such incidents, the testing program of imported food samples was intensified across the country.
On Sept. 6, Chinese authorities suspended imports of frozen food from a number of food suppliers in 19 countries and regions where the coronavirus is spreading. And last week, Chinese authorities announced "emergency precautionary measures" after corona was identified in a sample of frozen seafood imported from a Norwegian company. Corona was found in seafood imported from Russia in Shandong province last Saturday. Coronavirus was found in frozen fish imported from Brazil the day before.
The coronavirus epidemic spread from Wuhan, China, last January. According to WorldMeters.info, a website that publishes information about the epidemic all the time, the number of corona infected patients around the world has reached 33.5 million. Of these, more than 1 million patients have died. About two and a half crore corona infected patients have recovered so far. However, the situation is now much more normal in China, where the epidemic has spread around the world. Yesterday, 21 corona-infected patients were identified in the country. In all, more than 60,500 of the more than 75,000 patients identified in the country have recovered. 4 thousand 734 people died.