North China’s Tianjin Municipality announced it has entered wartime mode after reporting a loader in a cold storage was infected by COVID-19 through cold chain food imports. Tihe city detected a positive sample for COVID-19 on the outer packaging of a frozen pork knuckle sample imported from Bremen, Germany.

(File photo: VCG)

The report from the Tianjin anti-epidemic group came after Dezhou, East China's Shandong Province, and Taiyuan, North China's Shanxi Province, detected the novel coronavirus on the packaging of food products imported via Tianjin. 

The sample that tested positive for COVID-19 is taken from a frozen pork knuckle, which came from the port of Bremen, Germany, and arrived in Tianjin on October 19, and was shipped from Tianjin to Dezhou on Thursday, local officials confirmed on a news conference on Sunday. 

The Tianjin anti-epidemic group said on early Sunday that in addition to the infected loader, a doorknob at the cold storage facility, located in China-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, was also found to be positive with the novel coronavirus. 

Test results on related cold products, cold storage facilities and vehicles all came back negative. The worker's close contacts were quarantined for medical observation. 

The worker is receiving treatment at a local hospital. 

A total of eight close contacts of the confirmed COVID-19 patient have been isolated and are now under quarantine, with no other positive reports.

Fifty-nine other contacts and related persons have been placed under quarantine observation and have taken a nucleic acid test. The results are pending. 

The city announced it had entered wartime mode on Sunday. 

Multiple cold chain items imported into China have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in recent months.