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China’s Northern Port of Dalian Begins New COVID-Related Lockdowns https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/china-s-northern-port-of-dalian-begins-new-covid-related-lockdowns

PUBLISHED NOV 12, 2021 3:07 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

The northeastern port city of Dalian in China is being a third round of lockdowns and quarantine as the city has been linked to a new wave of the Delta variant of COVID-19. Health officials have begun closing non-essential businesses including at least parts of the port operation. Residents have been ordered to remain at home except for essential travel as mass testing and sanitation regimes are again introduced in the city.

The latest wave of COVID-19 cases began to appear at the beginning of November. Yesterday health officials reported 80 domestic cases of the virus with some media reports saying as many as 52 additional local symptomatic cases were recorded on Friday. The health officials said the outbreaks had so far been limited to several clusters, which they were working to isolate. In total, more than 200 cases of the virus have been reported in the region in less than two weeks.

The first case in the latest wave of the virus reportedly came from a worker at a warehouse in the port’s cold chain food operations. So far, 14 cold storage employees reportedly have tested positive out of a total workforce of approximately 600,000 employees in the imported cold-chain food operations.

China, however, has taken a strict zero-tolerance approach to the virus leading the health officials on November 8 to order all work at the cold-chain food operations in the port suspended.