China halts imports of seafood products from Indian firm

China has suspended the import of seafood merchandise from an Indian firm for every week ranging from Friday, after traces of Covid-19 have been reportedly discovered on the outer packaging of some samples of frozen cuttlefish exported by the agency, the state-run Global Times reported.

The report, nevertheless, has not offered any particulars of the corporate which exported the fish to China.

It additionally stated Liangshan county in East China’s Shandong Province on Friday reported that packaging from one batch of imported frozen beef examined positive for Covid-19. The beef was delivered from one other Chinese metropolis.

Control and administration of sources will likely be strengthened, Bi Kexin, head of the import and export meals security bureau of the General Administration of Customs, was quoted as saying.

The Chinese customs will additional improve their inspection of cold-chain imported meals in a bid to stop the danger of imported coronavirus infections, Bi stated.

China has communicated with the authorities of 109 international locations that export cold-chain meals merchandise to the nation, with ideas and necessities receiving lively responses from the respective departments, Bi stated, including that 140 cold-chain meals producers from 50 international locations have been inspected, and 22 corporations have been handled concerning unqualified merchandise.

It has been estimated that there have been over 25 novel coronavirus instances detected in imported meals chilly chains for the reason that first case was present in July, principally from main frozen meals exporting international locations together with Ecuador, Russia, Indonesia, Brazil, and Norway, the report stated.

The novel coronavirus, which originated from the central Chinese metropolis of Wuhan in December final 12 months, has claimed almost 1.three million lives and contaminated over 52 million folks globally, in accordance with Johns Hopkins University information.