Beijing Shuts Operations At Pepsico's Food Processing Factory Over Covid-19 Reflash, Bans Poultry Imports From A Top US Producer

PepsiCo China has halted the production at the factory in the Daxing district after the Covid-19 case was confirmed on June 15 while the country has temporarily suspended imports of frozen chicken from Tyson Foods after the resurgence.

Workers construct an advertising sign for US soft drink giant PepsiCo on a street in Beijing (Photo by PETER PARKS / AFP)

Beijing, June 22:  Amid the constant allegations against China underplaying the spread of Covid-19 pandemic, PepsiCo China had now shut its operations at one of its food processing plants in Beijing after at least one employee tested positive for the coronavirus. The authorities have halted the production at the factory in the Daxing district after the Covid-19 case was confirmed on June 15, said PepsiCo China director of corporate affairs, Fan Zhimin at a conference.  Zhimin didn’t disclose the exact number of cases detected, according to the news agency Reuters. However, a senior official for the Beijing disease control authority, Pang Xinghuo, informed at the same conference that eight people at the Daxing plant had tested positive. Although Lay’s, a brand owned by PepsiCo, has clarified on its micro-blog that the mentioned food-processing plant had manufactured a small batch of potato chips and that scope of any virus surviving during food processing is extremely low. The capital city of Beijing had reported its first case in the latest resurgence of the outbreak on June 11. The resurgence which has affected 227  is being linked to Beijing’s Xinfadi wholesale food centre near Daxing district. Meanwhile, in another incident, China banned imports from a top US poultry producer, according to the international news agency AFP.  According to the agency, the country has temporarily suspended imports of frozen chicken from Tyson Foods after the virus resurfaced at one of the company's production facilities in the US. As per the statement from General Administration of Customs, China, all products will be confiscated from the firm that has already entered the country. China’s customs authorities have been engaged in testing all shipments of imported meat to check on the virus spread including these products at domestic markets in major cities. In a statement Thursday, China Customs said all 32,174 samples of imported seafood, meat, vegetables, fruit and other related products had tested negative. According to the financial daily Nikkei Asian Review, Beijing has reported nine new cases of the coronavirus on Sunday down from 22 a day earlier. Also Watch | COVID:19: Know how Remdesivir medicine works in Covid-19 treatment