China’s northern port city of Tianjin has entered “wartime” mode after a worker at a cold storage facility tested positive for COVID-19, the local authorities announced on Sunday (8 Nov).
The patient, a 38-year-old male employee of a frozen food company in the Binhai New Area district of the city, had handled pork products from Germany on 4 November, as reported by Reuters.
The worker had no contact history with other confirmed or suspected cases but was exposed to imported frozen food during his work. He has been diagnosed as a mild case.
All close contacts have been isolated, and residents in the neighbourhood where he lives are being tested. The authorities have also sealed off the cold storage centre, and notified the provinces and cities that received food from that area.
Additionally, all related products and their environments have been fully disinfected and sterilized.
According to CGTN, all relevant personnel and close contacts of the infected worker have tested negative so far.
The case was discovered after Dezhou city in the eastern Shandong province informed Tianjin on Saturday (7 Nov) that samples of frozen food packaging imported through the port had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
What’s more, state media reported yesterday that Taiyuan city in China’s northern Shanxi province on Saturday revealed that frozen belt fish imported into Tianjin from India had been tested positive for the virus as well.
In recent months, multiple cold chain products imported into China have tested positive for COVID-19. Similar cases have been reported in east China’s Qingdao and Yantai, south China’s Shenzhen, northeast China’s Dalian, and the capital city Beijing.
22 travellers from China arrived in Singapore on 6 November when border restrictions were lifted
Meanwhile, it was reported by The Straits Times (ST) yesterday that 22 travellers from China arrived in Singapore last Friday (6 Nov) – the first day Singapore unilaterally opened its borders to visitors from China and the state of Victoria in Australia.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) told ST that all 22 travellers have been tested negative for COVID-19 upon arrival.
As of last Friday, all travellers from mainland China and the state of Victoria in Australia are allowed to enter Singapore, and will not be quarantined if they test negative for the coronavirus on arrival.
The CAAS said in a statement on 29 October that visitors from China and Victoria will be required to undergo a COVID-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test on arrival, adding that they will not have to serve a stay-home notice (SHN) if their test result comes out negative.
The test results will be out within 48 hours, and typically within 12 hours.
This also applies to Singapore citizens, Permanent Residents (PRs), and Long-Term Pass holders returning from these places.
In its statement, the CAAS assured that both China and Australia’s Victoria state have comprehensive public health surveillance systems and have displayed successful control over the spread of COVID-19.
