Advertisement
Advertisement
Coronavirus pandemic
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
The Xinfadi wholesale market has been closed since a fresh coronavirus outbreak was detected there last week. Photo: Reuters

Coronavirus: no evidence new Beijing outbreak came from Europe, EU disease agency says

  • Possible links between Xinfadi outbreak and Europe were sparked by comments that the strain was unlike other cases in Beijing months ago
  • European CDC says ‘European clade’ is the most common in all parts of the world

The European Union’s disease control agency says there is not enough evidence to draw conclusions about the source of Beijing’s new outbreak of Covid-19, amid suspicion in China that the virus was imported to the capital from Europe.

A new outbreak of coronavirus in Beijing’s largest wholesale market has left the city wondering where the virus came from. There was confusion over the initial findings at the Xinfadi market that led to misreporting in local media and a halt on the import of goods such as European salmon.

Possible links to Europe began on Saturday when early investigations at the wholesale market found Covid-19 on cutting boards used to process imported salmon, causing Chinese importers to stop buying European salmon from suppliers.

Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at China’s Centre for Disease Control, said genetic analysis of the strain of the virus found at Xinfadi, the capital’s largest wholesale market, was unlike cases found in Beijing two to three months ago, and was more similar to European strains.

Wu also said it did not necessarily mean the virus had been directly imported from Europe.

Giovanni Mancarella, a spokesman for the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said more information was needed to determine where the Beijing outbreak came from.

“Unless there is supporting epidemiological information, the sequence data is not enough to determine that the introduction is directly from Europe rather than just being part of a clade that was originally associated with Europe,” he said.

“Covid-19 is a global pandemic of an RNA virus which is constantly mutating, therefore it would not be surprising to see similar strains of the virus detected in Europe as in China, as we did in the early phases of the European epidemic,” Mancarella said.

“The so-called European clade probably emerged in Europe or during the introduction of the virus to Europe, but has since then spread outside Europe and is now the most common clade in all parts of the world.”

There have been 158 new cases of Covid-19 detected in Beijing over the past seven days since a new outbreak occurred at Xinfadi.

Most of the infected were migrant workers hailing from outside the city and working in logistics and food services in the market.

Since the new outbreak, Beijing has raised its level of emergency response and moved primary and secondary school students back to online learning after they had returned to school at the start of the month.

Other recent outbreaks within China have also been deemed “European” strains. Genetic analysis of cases detected in Mudanjiang, along China’s northeastern border with Russia, were said to be of a European strain, following a major influx of cases from overland borders with Russia.

The mayor of Mudanjiang, Wang Wenli, said last week that a genetic analysis of 15 cases in his city were from the “European” family of virus, citing investigations by the Chinese CDC.

Wang said the cases were “most similar to the imported cases from Suifenhe port”, which borders Russia, and became the “front line” for defending China against imported cases of coronavirus after reporting hundreds of imported cases in April from Chinese nationals returning over the land border.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: ‘No proof’ Beijing outbreak from Europe
Post