Used rubber gloves imported from China are seized by the HCMC customs forces – PHOTO: TNO

Since late October, the Saigon Trading Group Product and Import Export Medical Equipment Co. Ltd., headquartered in Binh Thanh District, has been importing gloves, according to the Saigon Port Border Customs Sub-department Region I.

The company said in a customs declaration that the brand new rubber gloves were used for kitchen activities and were not medical gloves.

Seeing some signs of illegal import, the sub-department on December 2 launched an inspection into the batches in line with Article 34 of the 2014 Customs Law.

After checking the containers, the competent forces found two containers containing 1,087 cartons weighing a total of 5.77 tons of dirty rubber gloves with an unpleasant smell, Thanh Nien Online reported.

The sub-department said these gloves were used and looked like medical gloves, adding that due to the complicated development of Covid-19, the import of used rubber gloves posed a serious threat of community coronavirus transmission.

In early August, the HCMC police worked with the competent agencies to break up a ring that turned used medical gloves into new ones at a factory in the city. Over 2.3 million gloves were seized at that time. SGT