Chinese authorities announced two new local cases of new crowns in Tianjin. Beijing has now targeted foreign imports of frozen meat and packaging, AFP reports.
China has long stopped the spread of the neo-crown epidemic due to a rare and tough blockade, with very few new cases diagnosed each day, the vast majority of which are considered “imported cases” brought in by people returning to China from abroad.
But recently, after traces of the new coronavirus were found in the packaging of imported frozen products, large-scale testing has been conducted in many parts of China. The city of Wuhan, where the neo-crown virus was first detected last year, said Friday that the virus had been detected in frozen beef imported from Brazil. Four other cities also announced last week that traces of the virus had been found in foreign imports of frozen foods, including Argentine pork and Indian fish. Chinese customs claimed Friday to have tested 800,000 samples from 99 foreign suppliers.
Why is Beijing So Cynical? Beijing’s suspicions began in June when authorities later announced that they had found traces of the new coronavirus from salmon vendors at a local market following a cluster of infections, and immediately suspected that the virus came from imported salmon, AFP reported.
Authorities in Tianjin said Wednesday that both of the locally diagnosed individuals had previous contact with the imported frozen food supply chain. They are the same workmates and roommates who were previously investigated for a locally confirmed infection.
The local case, which broke out in Tianjin on November 7, involved a frozen food company stevedore worker, and officials pointed to a shipment of frozen pork knuckle imported from Germany as the source of transmission. The German Ministry of Agriculture said on November 10 that the local diagnosis in Tianjin could not have been caused by German pork knuckle, and the German authorities said that there was no known precedent of infection from eating or touching meat and meat products contaminated with the new coronavirus.
The Shandong Provincial Health and Construction Commission said on June 14 that it had tested positive for nucleic acid of the new coronavirus in beef and tripe imported from Brazil, Bolivia, and New Zealand, as well as in their packaging, but New Zealand’s President Ardern refuted the claim. Ardern said on March 16 that she was confident that the country’s meat exports were free of the virus. She added, “We have not been told that the New Zealand product itself has tested positive for the new coronavirus, which is extremely important to New Zealand. We are confident that our exports will not show signs of coronavirus, given that we are largely free of coronavirus disease in this country. ”
Canada, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States have urged China to halt its aggressive neo-coronavirus testing of imported food, which has no scientific basis and amounts to “unreasonable trade restrictions,” according to anonymous diplomatic officials who were briefed at the WTO in Geneva on November 6.
Moreover, according to the World Health Organization, there is no evidence to date that people can be infected with the new coronavirus through contact with frozen foods or their packaging.
China has banned the entry of tourists or their nationals from several countries, including the United Kingdom, France and India, since November.
AFP notes that Beijing has repeatedly stressed that, if the new coronavirus was first discovered on Chinese soil, it may have originated in another country.
At the end of October, the WHO announced that it would conduct an international investigation of the new coronavirus, but the New York Times, citing internal WHO documents and interviews with more than 50 diplomats, said that the WHO had been swayed by Beijing and that it would not be easy to go to China, especially Wuhan, to investigate the source of the new coronavirus.
Recent Comments