The western Chinese city of Lanzhou said on Saturday (local time) it had detected the new coronavirus on the packaging of a batch of shrimp imported from Saudi Arabia, as China ramps up testing of frozen foods.
In a statement on its website, the Lanzhou Municipal Health Commission said it had found one positive sample on Friday on the inner packaging of imported frozen shrimp from Saudi Arabia that had passed through customs in the coastal city of Tianjin.
The cold storage plant in Lanzhou where the case was discovered had been temporarily closed, all employees of the plant had been tested, all food involved was sealed and the whereabouts of all food sold had been determined, the statement said. The commission said the shrimp had been purchased by Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products Co Ltd, entered the country on October 21, and reached Lanzhou on Nov. 8.
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It follows the detection of the virus on the packaging of a batch of Brazilian beef in Wuhan on Friday and on Argentinian beef samples in Shandong and Jiangsu provinces this week.
Authorities in China's northeastern Jilin province also found the novel coronavirus on imported squid earlier this year.
The World Health Organization says the risk of catching COVID-19 from frozen food is low, but China has repeatedly sounded alarms after detecting the virus on imported food products, triggering disruptive import bans.
Reuters / Newshub.
