Photo: cnsphoto

South China’s Shenzhen has activated widespread nucleic acid testing of residents  after employees of a grocery store chain tested positive for the coronavirus.

According to the Shenzhen Municipal Health Commission, an employee of Alibaba’s Fresh Hema surnamed Chen, who worked as a yogurt promoter in a Hema branch in Shenzhen’s Luohu district, has contracted COVID-19.

Employee and contact screening found two of Chen’s colleagues and three family members tested positive for the coronavirus and are currently asymptomatic.

Fresh Hema said it has closed all 21 of its grocery stores in Shenzhen and will test all food products and employees for the virus.

City authorities are now seeking to test all those who had shopped at the Hema store’s Shuibei branch since July 24.

The COVID-19 tests will cover areas close to the IBC tower in Shenzhen’s Shuibei area where the Hema store is located. Residents who live in the areas have been asked to stay indoors until they have been tested.

Residents who live in the same residential area as those who have tested positive are now under quarantine. All of the residents will be tested for the coronavirus, local authorities said Saturday.

The source of infection remains unknown, but it may have come from frozen food products, many concerns.

Since July, at least 10 cases in China had involved frozen food products, including frozen chicken wings from Brazil and shrimps from Ecuador that tested positive for the coronavirus, media reported.

Two batches of frozen chicken wings imported from Brazil that tested positive for the virus were found in Shenzhen’s Longgang district.