Coronavirus: frozen food firms as culprit in two outbreaks in China, sparking warning over cold imports
- Investigators narrow down possible cause of clusters in Beijing and Qingdao to cold-chain food
- Even though the risk is low, researchers say Covid-19 prevention measures should include strict scrutiny of imported frozen goods
The warning came after epidemiological investigators pinned down the outbreak in Beijing in June, involving 335 cases, to imported salmon sold from a booth in a wholesale food market.
Investigators published their findings in the National Science Review on Friday, saying the result was “particularly important” for countries where community transmissions were contained or suppressed and that a Covid-19 outbreak could start from the cold-chain transport of contaminated items.
The two workers had a CAT scan, triggering a hospital cluster exposing other patients using the same scan room to the virus. In addition to the workers, a further 12 people in the city were infected.
On Tuesday, a government task force for Covid-19 control issued a guideline to step up Covid-19 prevention measures for people handling imported frozen food, citing a possibility of “long-distance, cross-border import with cold-chain food as carrier”.
Beijing has launched a compulsory digital platform to track and trace imported frozen food.