A total of 13,667 kilograms of frozen pork imports have been sold to Yanliang district and other places in Xi'an of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Dali County of Weinan city in Shaanxi said in a Monday announcement after Yanliang district reported that the packaging of one imported pork product in the district tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday.

Another 9,356 kilograms were sold in Dali locally. The batch, a total of 23,023 kilograms, was transported from Yangshan port in Shanghai on November 5 and arrived at Huiyuan wholesale market of agricultural products in Dali county on November 7, the announcement said.

Yanliang district, close to Dali county, found on Saturday that samples taken from cold storage at the home of two local villagers, who are meat shop owners, returned "weak-positive" test results for the coronavirus in a regular inspection on Saturday, Xi'an epidemic control authority announced on Sunday.

In the following inspections, the packaging of pork imported from Argentina returned a positive test result. 

The related products, a total of 109 pieces, were transported to Yanliang on November 10 from the Huiyuan market. Of them, 73 are from Chile and 36 from Argentina. They have not been sold to the market yet, the authority said. 

The authority then sealed all the frozen products before carrying out disinfection in relevant places. In addition, 18 close contacts of the products returned negative test results and were put under quarantine.

Liu Li, a resident from the village in Yanliang where the two meat shop owners live, told the Global Times that people in her village underwent nucleic acid tests on Sunday. All the villagers were asked not to go outside their homes for work or school until their test results are released, Liu said.

"My kids' schools asked us to stay home for a few days for safety reasons," she said. "There is disinfection taking place in the village every day."

Two wet markets in Yanliang have been closed down as well, and people related to the markets are also receiving nucleic acid tests, according to Liu.

Dali County has also urged other places where the pork was sold to carry out inspections.

As of 6 am on Monday, Dali County has completed nucleic acid tests on 22 environment and pork samples collected from the market, with all results coming back negative. All 740 close contacts and people related to the matter returned negative test results as well.

46 persons, including a cold chain truck driver, meat shop owners, and loading men were put under quarantine for medical observation at designated places.