The State Post Bureau of China has issued a notice to tighten regulations for overseas posts and mail in order to prevent the transmission of Covid-19 from overseas.
The postal service has also ordered workers to disinfect international deliveries and urged the public to reduce orders from overseas after authorities claimed mail could be the source of recent coronavirus outbreaks.
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.
In a notice released on its official WeChat account, the state post bureau called for epidemic prevention and control measures for express mail imported from high-risk countries and regions, including comprehensive risk assessment based on the source of the imported mail, the qualifications of the mailer, and the attributes of the items delivered.
It also suggested that people should reduce mail and express delivery of goods from countries and regions with a high risk of Covid-19 in order to prevent transmission of the virus through international mail.
With the Spring Festival approaching and the Beijing Winter Olympics around the corner, there is strong demand for delivery services, so prevention and control of imported Covid-19 cases is a complicated task, the bureau said.
The bureau asked relevant enterprises to ramp up efforts in disinfection and ventilation for international express.
Disinfection of mail and packages and the length of rest time following disinfection should be standardized and carried out in strict accordance with relevant standards and guidelines for local epidemic prevention and control departments.
The bureau has also asked enterprises to carry out strict health monitoring and nucleic acid testing for personnel in high-risk positions with a closed-loop management process.
All international express mail handlers and delivery personnel must be fully vaccinated, it said.
According to the notice, postal administrations at all levels must carry out supervision and inspection of international express mail at least once a month and strengthen inspections during the Spring Festival and The Beijing Winter Olympics, with a 24-hour duty system and a reporting system.
The move illustrates China’s unrelenting focus on stamping out all coronavirus cases as it prepares to host the Winter Olympics next month, even as experts say the risk of such surface transmission is low.
Multiple small outbreaks in recent weeks — including in Beijing — have tested China’s strict policy of targeting zero Covid cases, which authorities have pursued even as the rest of the world has gradually reopened.
In recent days, Chinese officials have suggested that some people could have been infected by packages from abroad, including a woman in the capital whom authorities said had no contact with other infected people.
She tested positive for a variant similar to those found in North America.
Both the World Health Organisation and the US Centers for Disease Control have said the risk of being infected from contaminated surfaces, known as fomite transmission, is low and becomes less likely as time passes.
But China — where the virus first emerged in late 2019, is not willing to take any risks, even more so ahead of next month’s Winter Olympics.
The country uses strict local lockdowns, mass testing and contact-tracing apps to try and eliminate outbreaks as soon as cases are detected.
Millions have been confined to their homes in multiple Chinese cities in recent weeks after cases of both the Delta and Omicron coronavirus variants flared.
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