People near virus-tainted date snacks all test negative for COVID-19

By Monday, people who had been in proximity to COVID-19 virus-contaminated date products all tested negative, according to information released at a news conference held by the Information Office of Shandong Provincial Government on Monday.

The date snacks covered in whey powder were produced by a company in Zaozhuang, East China's Shandong province. The company purchased the whey powder from a Tianjin company that imported it from Ukraine. The whey powder was imported at the same time with another batch of Ukraine-sourced whey powder that tested positive for coronavirus in ice cream in Tianjin earlier.

Food production and sales have been suspended since the products tested positive for the virus on Jan 19. The whey powder that hasn't been used and the products that haven't been sold have all been sealed.

There is a low risk for people to be infected by the date product because the virus carried by the products is probably a part of the COVID-19 virus or dead virus, Lei Jie, chief expert at the Shandong Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at the news conference.

Over 22 tons of date products made with whey powder tainted by the virus were sold to over 25 provinces across China, according to information released at the news conference.