(Yicai Global) Aug. 17 -- Alibaba Group Holding's Hema Fresh supermarket chain has suspended business at all of 21 stores in Shenzhen for general disinfection and provided nucleic acid tests for all its staff and fresh products in Shenzhen since Aug. 15, the firm said on its Weibo account the same day.

A woman who had previously worked in a Hema store in the southern economic powerhouse near Hong Kong was diagnosed with Covid-19 on Aug. 14, the health commissions of Guangdong province and Shenzhen said in separate announcements. Two other employees working in the same store and three family members of the confirmed case tested positive and were confirmed as asymptomatic infections. One active case and 5 asymptomatic infections had turned up as of 7 a.m. yesterday.

“There is currently no evidence that the coronavirus can spread through food. Even if the virus is present in it, it can be killed by cooking,” Deng Huihong, director of Guangdong province’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a press conference on the province’s pandemic prevention and control yesterday.

The province has carried out sampling and testing of imported frozen food since June and has tested 145,900 samples thus far, of which only three were positive.

Areas throughout China have successively reported positive tests of imported frozen fresh products, so the risk of Covid-19 contamination in the cold chain still exists. Deng advised the public to wear disposable gloves when buying imported frozen food and try to avoid touching it directly.

Editor: Ben Armour