Coronavirus traces on Vietnamese, Thai fruit see Chinese cities close stores, impose quarantine
- At least nine cities in Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces have reported coronavirus traces on Vietnamese dragon fruit or Thai longan fruit
- Despite little evidence people can catch Covid-19 from food, imported produce undergoes stringent testing before arriving on Chinese supermarket shelves
A number of Chinese cities have started emergency screenings for coronavirus on imported food and ordered fruit buyers to quarantine after fresh produce from Southeast Asia tested positive.
Despite little evidence people can catch Covid-19 from food, at least nine cities in Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces have reported positive coronavirus results on dragon fruit imported from Vietnam or longan fruit from Thailand since December.
This has led to temporary shutdowns of supermarkets and tighter screening and controls at produce markets selling dragon fruit, especially from Vietnam.
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New round of mass testing in Xian, the northwestern city at epicentre of China’s Covid-19 outbreak
More than 1,000 residents of Shaoxing city in Zhejiang who had close contact with Vietnamese dragon fruit have been ordered to quarantine at home, according to a local government report.