Hong Kong confirms 48 new coronavirus cases as outbreak at European slaughterhouse sparks fears
- Of the latest infections, 46 were locally transmitted, including 37 linked to previous cases
- Experts, meanwhile, say fears over food-borne transmission not backed up by evidence
Danish Crown, Europe’s largest pork exporter, said last Saturday it would shut the facility near Denmark’s capital of Copenhagen for at least a week after nearly 150 employees tested positive for the coronavirus. On Thursday night, the company wrote on Facebook that exports from the plant would be suspended, and that all products currently sold in Hong Kong were made during or before June.
The announcement came as authorities in mainland China also stepped up monitoring of frozen food processing after traces of the coronavirus were detected in two cities on food and packaging imported from South America.
But Chinese University respiratory medicine expert Professor David Hui Shu-cheong reassured the public again that the risk of contracting the disease by eating meat from those facilities was low.
“There shouldn’t be a problem as long as the meat is completely cooked through,” he said. “Consumers should use water and soap to wash the packaging before putting it in the fridge or using [the meat].”
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The Centre for Food Safety, meanwhile, said on Friday that there was no evidence people could be infected with Covid-19 through food.