Parcels posted from overseas may have fuelled the spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant in Beijing and elsewhere, China is reporting.
Stronger measures have been ordered to ventilate and disinfect sites where items mailed from overseas are handled by the State Post Bureau, Chinese state media said.
Postal workers are required to wear PPE, receive booster shots and undergo regular testing, it said on its website.
It added that parcels from abroad must be isolated, cleaned and held for a waiting period to ensure they are free from the virus.
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The World Health Organisation has previously said that coronaviruses “need a live animal or human host to multiply and survive and cannot multiply on the surface of food packages”.
Global health experts also say the virus mainly spreads through respiratory droplets when infected people breathe, speak, cough and sneeze.
But China has repeatedly emphasised what it calls the danger of infections from packaging, though only trace amounts of COVID has been detected on such items.
The country has also boosted COVID testing of frozen foods and other items shipped from overseas.
The most recent report from the Communist Party newspaper Global Times cited the Beijing Centre for Disease Control and virologists as linking recent infections to international parcels.
It published an article on Tuesday saying investigators found people newly infected had picked up packages mailed from Canada and the US.
Someone else in the southern technology hub of Shenzhen contracted Omicron after handling packages sent from North America, the newspaper said.
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It comes as China locked down parts of Beijing’s Haidian district following the detection of three cases, just weeks before the capital is to host the Winter Olympic Games.
The country remains on high alert for new outbreaks ahead of the games, with some 20 million people under lockdown.
Mass testing has also been ordered in entire cities where cases have been discovered.
On Monday, Beijing Games organisers announced that only “selected” spectators will be permitted at the events, which is due to open on 4 February.
It was previously announced that no fans from overseas will be allowed into the events, and tickets have not been issued to the general public.
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