A dock staff member at the Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan in east China’s Zhejiang Province tested positive for coronavirus on 11 August 2021, local authorities said, threatening more closures and disruption in Southeast Asia after the chaos in Vietnam.
State news agency Xinhua said operations at the relevant site have been suspended and the area has been disinfected.
The news has prompted further fears of supply chain disruption as COVID-19 cases reappear in East Asia.
On Tuesday, 16 crew members of a ship stranded in the port tested positive for COVID-19, of whom 11 were later diagnosed as confirmed cases, said the municipal government of the province’s Zhoushan City.
On 3 August 2021, nine crew members of the ship anchored off the coast of Zhoushan reported to local authorities that they were running a fever.
The ship, with 20 Chinese nationals on board, had been docked in Indonesia and the Philippines, and left the Philippines on 30 July.
The Ningbo-Zhoushan port ranks first in the world in terms of cargo throughput.
During the first seven months of 2021, its container throughput increased more than 17% to exceed 18.68 million TEU compared to 2020.
On 5 August 2021 Hapag-Lloyd announced that container terminals at Tan Cang Cat Lai Port in Ho Chi Minh City, South Vietnam, suspended container imports in a bid to clear a backlog caused by a COVID-19 outbreak in the area.
