China on Wednesday announced banning all kind of solid waste imports as of January next year.

The country’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment said that imports of solid waste in any form will be banned.

“The dumping, stacking and disposal of solid waste from overseas is prohibited from Jan 1, 2021,” the ministry said in a statement to Chinese daily Global Times.

Meanwhile, the country’s National Health Commission (NHC) Wednesday said China reported 98 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in the past 30 days which is 7.5 times higher than the previous 30 days.

“COVID-19-positive imported products have been received at a higher rate; with many places involved,” said Mi Feng, the NHC spokesman.

The NHC officials said the number of COVID-19-positive imported cold-chain foods has “increased significantly and affected more provinces in recent days.”

“A range of products have been detected, including seafood, livestock and poultry meat products; and it now includes containers,” the NHC said.

However, another NHC official Zhang Liubo said: “No COVID-19 infections caused by direct consumption of contaminated cold-chain foods have been found.”

China has reported 86,469 coronavirus cases, including 4,634 deaths, since the first case was reported in Wuhan city last December.

The deadly infection has spread across the globe with over 59.09 million cases, including 1.41 million deaths./aa