Hong Kong Disposes 3 Imports After Year of Testing Food for COVID-19

Hong Kong disposed of three imported shipments of chilled and frozen foods after a year of testing for the COVID-19 virus on imports, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report released Oct. 28. The three positive shipments came from Indonesia, USDA said, adding that thousands of other imports were tested but deemed negative for the virus. USDA said Hong Kong uses a “hold and test policy” to keep shipments from being released until their COVID detection test results are available, and usually tries to release the goods within 24 hours. Macau recently found no imported foods were contaminated with the virus after testing the shipments for a year (see 2110280005).