Three individuals in charge of a cargo handling company in the Chinese port city of Dalian, whose violations of epidemic prevention standards resulted in the spread of Covid-19 from cold-chain goods to society in 2020, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 39 to 57 months last Friday, according to Global Times.
The three defendants, two surnamed Fu and one surnamed Zhang, from the company, which is primarily engaged in port cargo handling and human resource services, were sentenced to prison for violating the rules of infectious disease prevention and treatment. Their company was fined a total of 800,000 yuan ($125,478).
Since four company employees were identified as asymptomatic on December 5, 2020, a total of 83 confirmed and asymptomatic infections have been reported in the flare-up caused by the company’s irregular cargo handling operations.
A foreign cargo ship carrying imported cold-chain goods docked at Dalian port in mid-November 2020.
Between December 1 and December 12, 2020, the defendant surnamed Zhang was appointed by one of the defendants surnamed Fu, the company’s actual controller, to hire workers to handle imported cold-chain goods on the foreign cargo ship. Zhang was also in charge of the on-site operation.
According to the report, the virus spread to society as a result of a series of non-standard operations that violated epidemic prevention and control regulations.
Among the violations was a failure to implement whole-process standard protection. Zhang failed to supervise operating personnel who did not wear masks as required and ate meals in contaminated protective garments.
