Coronavirus: China ramps up checks on food imports amid Beijing outbreak
- Customs authorities test thousands of products but all samples so far come back negative
- Virus found at the Xinfadi food market is much older than the one circulating in Europe, Chinese researchers say
China has stepped up inspections of imported food amid a coronavirus outbreak linked to a Beijing food market.
The decision comes as Chinese researchers trying to trace the source of the cluster said that the strain in the capital appeared to be related to but older than a variation circulating in Europe.
Song Yueqian, a quarantine official at the General Administration of Customs, said on Friday that the agency had launched a nationwide drive to inspect all cold-stored fresh products imported from “high-risk countries”.
He said authorities had so far tested more than 15,600 samples of imported food, include packaging, and all had come back negative for the virus.
Government agencies and food companies from more than three dozen countries had been asked to focus on preventing coronavirus contamination of food.
The measures were prompted by an outbreak linked to the Xinfadi food wholesale market, a centre in south Beijing that has been linked to most of the 183 cases of Covid-19 that have emerged in the city since June 11.