Macao authorities destroyed 126 kilograms of imported frozen fish, after finding traces of the new coronavirus responsible for Covid-19 inside a package, it was announced this Friday.
The fish was examined on Thursday night, during a regular food import inspection, which did not detect SARS-CoV-2 on the outer and inner plastic wrappers, the Macao Institute of Municipal Affairs (IAM) added.
The IAM “immediately launched an emergency plan, sealing and destroying the 20 boxes” of frozen fish, which “did not reach the market,” according to a statement.
The institute “thoroughly” disinfected the place where the fish was stored and temporarily suspended the import license of the company involved.
All food sector workers in the cold chain who had contact with the fish boxes will be monitored by the Macao Health Services (MSS), it added.
In early November, after Macao recorded about a dozen cases, the Directorate of Economic and Technological Development Services called on sales and collection points for products purchased online to “strengthen disinfection cleaning” and “avoid the transmission” of Covid-19 “through products”.
In August, the director of the SMS, Alvis Lo Iek Long, had said that the worst outbreak of Covid-19 to hit the city since the start of the pandemic, between June and July, was caused by “objects or products coming from abroad “. “.
The World Health Organization (WHO) stressed that “there is no evidence so far that viruses that cause respiratory diseases are transmitted through food or food packaging.”
“Coronaviruses cannot multiply in food; they need an animal or human host to multiply,” the WHO said on its website.
In July, Macao suspended imports of mangoes from Taiwan, initially for a week, after detecting traces of the new coronavirus on the outside of a package.
The Macao Industrial Association told Lusa in August that it was impossible for the importation of food infected with the new coronavirus to cause the outbreak of Covid-19 in the city, pointing to a “very strict” control system.
Macao follows the zero case policy imposed by Beijing to combat the spread of Covid-19, betting on confinement, massive tests and mandatory quarantine.
The Chinese special administrative region has recorded six deaths and more than 2,600 cases of the disease, including asymptomatic ones, in nearly three years.
Source: TSF
