China’s postal service has ordered workers to disinfect international deliveries and urged the public to reduce orders from overseas after authorities claimed mail could be the source of COVID-19 outbreaks.
China, where the coronavirus first emerged in 2019, has stuck to a strict policy of targeting zero COVID-19 cases even as the rest of the world has reopened, but the nation is now battling multiple small outbreaks, including one in Beijing as the capital prepares to host the Winter Olympics next month.
Chinese officials have suggested that some people could have been infected by packages from abroad, including a woman in Beijing whom authorities said had no contact with other infected people, but tested positive for a variant of SARS-CoV-2 similar to those found in North America.
Photo: AP
China Post on Monday published a statement ordering workers to disinfect the outer packaging of all international mail “as soon as possible,” and requiring employees handling foreign letters and packages to receive vaccine booster shots.
The postal service also asked the public to reduce purchases and deliveries from “countries and regions with a high overseas epidemic risk,” and said domestic mail should be handled in different areas to prevent cross-contamination.
COVID-19 is spread through small liquid particles exhaled by infected people, and both the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have said the risk of being infected from contaminated surfaces — known as fomite transmission — is low and becomes less likely as time passes.
The US CDC has said there is a 99 percent reduction in virus traces left on most surfaces within three days, but China is not willing to take any risks, even more so ahead of next month’s Olympics.
The nation uses strict local lockdowns, mass testing and people tracing apps to stamp out infections as soon as cases are detected.
Millions have been confined to their homes in multiple cities this month after cases of both the Delta and Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2 flared.
Infections have been detected in areas that receive a high volume of international goods, including in the eastern port city of Tianjin and the southern manufacturing region of Guangdong.
China yesterday reported 127 new domestic COVID-19 cases.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of