SHANGHAI / SHENZHEN (Reuters) – Alibaba-owned supermarket chain Freshippo said Saturday that it had closed 21 of its outlets in Shenzhen and demanded that all its workers in the city undergo testing for the new coronavirus after the discovery of 3 cases in one. of their departures there.
Freshippo said that two of the brand’s promoters and a member working at their store at the IBC shopping mall in Shenzhen’s Luohu district had tested positive for the virus, which mentioned findings made through the city’s fitness authorities.
“All Freshippo workers in Shenzhen, as well as new food products in stores, will go through nucleic acid verification. All the effects of verification will be officially announced through the government,” the company said in a statement.
Shenzhen cases were discovered after a 41-year-old woman, who worked as a yogurt saleswoman in Freshippo, returned to her hometown of Lufeng City and tested positive for the virus on August 14, Shenzhen City Health Commission said. Both cities are located in Guangdong Province.
The two instances were asymptomatic or lately have no symptoms, the authority added.
He also said he would begin providing loose nucleic acid testing to those who visited the supermarket from July 24.
The IBC grocery shopping center cordoned off and under police surveillance on Friday night, with two hundred other people queuing outdoors while waiting for COVID-19 tests of the medical corps of workers with protective equipment.
The case for 41-year-old women is one of 8 local transmission cases reported across China on August 14. The other seven were discovered in the western region of Xinjiang.
In total, China reported 22 new cases of coronavirus on the continent until 14 August, with 30 cases a day earlier, the National Health Commission announced Saturday. Of the new infections, 14 were imported.
China reported 20 new asymptomatic patients, up from 28 the day before. As of August 14, mainland China had 84808 cases of coronavirus, the physical fitness authority said. The death toll by COVID-19 remained at 4634. (This story corrects the typo in the first paragraph).
Reporting through Brenda Goh in Shanghai and David Kirton in Shenzhen; Editing through Simon Cameron-Moore
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