China finds coronavirus on ice cream

PanARMENIAN.Net - Authorities in north China's Tianjin Municipality are tracing ice cream contaminated with coronavirus after three samples tested positive for the virus, Ecns.cn reports.

All storage of the goods produced by Tianjin Daqiaodao Food Co., Ltd. has been sealed after the samples sent by the company to the municipal center for disease control on Tuesday and Wednesday tested positive for coronavirus.

Preliminary epidemiological investigations show that the company produced the batch of ice cream using raw materials such as milk powder imported from New Zealand and whey powder imported from Ukraine.

As of Thursday, January 14, the company's 1,662 employees were placed under quarantine and put through nucleic acid testing. Of them, 700 were tested negative for Covid-19, and testing results of the remaining 962 people are yet to be shown.

Authorities said they have taken measures to disinfect the environment, quarantine close contacts and trace the ice cream that was sold.

China has largely brought the virus outbreak under control through a series of strict lockdowns and mass testing. More than 20 million people are currently under lockdown in the north of the country and one province has declared an emergency, as daily Covid-19 numbers climb after months of reporting only a handful of daily cases.