At least 8 places have reported that Vietnamese dragon fruit is positive, and many ports have suspended imports, and the traceability information is confirmed first

People's Daily health client Qiu Yue

On January 8, Anhui HeXian issued an emergency notice saying that after receiving information from Nanjing Municipality, a batch of dragon fruit imported from Vietnam tested positive for the nucleic acid of the new crown virus. On the same day, the Ningguo Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Anhui Province received a letter from outside the city, and a batch of dragon fruit imported from Vietnam was imported from Vietnam with positive nucleic acid tests for the new crown virus.

Since late December 2020, dragon fruit imported from Vietnam has been found positive for new coronavirus nucleic acid testing in Taiyuan, Shanxi, Linyi, Shandong, Taizhou, Jinhua, Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Zhejiang, Yangzhou, Huai'an and other places in Jiangsu Province.

Image courtesy of Shanghai News Broadcast.

Imported cold chain products have a "fusing" mechanism, does the fruit have it?

On September 11, 2021, the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China issued an announcement that if the same overseas production enterprise exports cold chain food to China or its packaging is detected positive for the first and second time, the customs will suspend the acceptance of the enterprise's product import declaration for 1 week, and automatically resume it after the expiration of the period; if the same overseas production enterprise has been detected positive for the new coronavirus nucleic acid 3 times or more, the customs will suspend the acceptance of the enterprise's product import declaration for 4 weeks, and automatically resume after the expiration of the period.

According to the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Inspection and Quarantine of Imported Fruits revised in November 2018, if a serious plant epidemic breaks out in the area of imported fruit orchards, processing plants or surrounding areas, the General Administration of Customs will suspend the import of such fruits or suspend the import from relevant fruit producing areas, orchards and packaging plants as appropriate.

Several land crossings to Vietnam have suspended the import of goods

The Health Times reporter found that due to the recent epidemic, as an important land port to Vietnam in China: Dongxing Port, Longbang Port and Friendship Customs in Guangxi have issued notices suspending customs clearance of goods.

On December 21, 2021, the Headquarters of the Leading Group for the Prevention and Control of the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Epidemic in Dongxing City, Guangxi Province, issued a notice that, in view of the current epidemic prevention and control situation in Dongxing City, customs clearance of personnel and goods at the Dongxing Port (including the Border People's Mutual Market Trade Zone) will be suspended from 00:00 on the same day. Until the afternoon of January 8, 2022, Customs clearance resumed at Guangxi Dongxing Port.

On December 24, 2021, the Longbang Port Management Center also issued an official letter saying that in order to prevent and control the new crown epidemic, the cold chain food import and export business at the Longbang Port will be suspended from the 25th.

On December 28, 2021, Pingxiang City, Guangxi Province, also issued the "Letter on The Meltdown of Dragon Fruit Involving Yang", and Friendship Customs suspended the declaration of dragon fruit import business from 00:00 on December 29, 2021 to 24:00 on January 26, 2022. According to the notice, the circuit breaker lasted for a total of 4 weeks and was automatically restored after the expiration of the period.

According to first financial reports, Tang Fenglin, who is engaged in Sino-Vietnamese trade at the Longbang port, said that on January 5, the Longbang port resumed customs clearance, but it was limited to dry and miscellaneous goods, including fruits and aquatic products, and cold chain customs clearance is not expected to resume before the Lunar New Year.

Are fruits that test positive contagious?

According to the article released by Jiangsu Disease Control, live viruses, dead viruses, and fragments of viruses may be positive for nucleic acid testing, but positive nucleic acid does not necessarily mean that they are infectious. If the imported fruit tests positive for nucleic acid, it can only be confirmed that the fruit is contaminated with the virus, but it must be contagious if it cannot be confirmed. A series of people who are in direct contact with import and export goods are high-risk groups, and they must be protected in accordance with the prevention and control measures of key groups, while the risk of infection in people who eat fruits is extremely low. At present, no cases of COVID-19 infection due to the consumption of imported cold chain food have been found. From the actual statistics, the probability of cold chain food detecting positive nucleic acid of the new crown virus is still extremely low, and there is no need to panic too much.

Consumers purchasing imported food should confirm the traceability information

On January 4, Taizhou City epidemic prevention and control cold chain food material prevention special class prompted that in the special period should be cautious about the purchase of imported cold chain food and imported fruits, to go to the regular supermarket or market to buy, do not buy imported cold chain food and imported fruits of unknown origin; try to avoid online shopping, purchasing, sea shopping imported cold chain food and imported fruits; pay attention to food origin, source, imported goods inspection and quarantine certificates and other information, at the same time, the purchase of imported cold chain food and imported fruits to avoid direct contact, and standardize the wearing of masks.