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LANZHOU: The health authorities in the western Chinese city of Lanzhou have said they had detected the new COVID-19 on the packaging of a batch of shrimp imported from Saudi Arabia.
After China ramps up testing of frozen foods, the Lanzhou Municipal Health Commission said in a statement on its website that 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 Commission further said 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, it added.
The commission said the shrimp had been purchased by Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products, entered the country on October 21 and reached Lanzhou on Nov. 8.
The positive sample in Lanzhou follows the detection of the COVID-19 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.
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.
China reported 18 new confirmed cases – all imported from abroad (3 cases in Shanghai, 1 case in Inner Mongolia, 1 case in Henan, 1 case in Sichuan, 1 case in Shaanxi, and 1 case in Gansu).
There were 15 new cases of asymptomatic infection (all imported from abroad); 697 cases of asymptomatic infection are still under medical observation (450 cases imported from abroad).
The last 10 million cases worldwide were registered in just 21 days. It took 223 days from the first case to 10 million cases. From the first case to 25 million cases, coronavirus took 284 days. The last 25 million cases were registered in just 71 days.
