Chinese authorities have taken the extreme step of halting parcel deliveries in some parts of the country over fears that packages could be spreading COVID-19 following several positive cases linked to children’s clothing manufacturers.
A string of recent positive cases has resulted in parcel delivery services being halted in several regions as hundreds of packages — and anyone who came in contact with them — were tested, Bloomberg reports.
The saga comes ahead of China’s largest online shopping festival, Singles’ Day, on Thursday.
In Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing, three workers at an unnamed kids’ clothing manufacturer were found to have tested positive for COVID-19.
It prompted authorities 1,200 miles away to force anyone who handled or received parcels from that company to get tested.
The health commission in Guangxi, in the country’s southeast, described the situation as a “COVID-related mail chain,” the outlet said.
Officials in Hebei tested 300 clothing packages linked to the Haohui Ecommerce Co. company for any traces of the coronavirus.
They also stopped delivery services in the cities of Xinji and Jinzhou — but all tests came back negative.
Officials in Xilinhot, located in Inner Mongolia, also asked people who had come into contact with packages from another clothes store within the past month to get tested.
No positive cases have been found so far in relation to those packages, according to the outlet.
It is among the measures China is taking amid its zero-tolerance policy toward local COVID-19 cases.
The country has enforced targeted lockdowns and travel restrictions of late to stop wider outbreaks amid the Delta surge — even if it disrupts local economies.