Chinese Center for Disease Control suggests first Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan could be due to imported frozen food

Officials and experts from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) suggested that the World Health Organization (WHO) should investigate the countries where the virus had been found on samples of cold-chain products and the cold-chain workers involved in shipping products to Wuhan in 2019. The CDC said that it is possible that the early outbreak in Wuhan's Huanan seafood market at the end of 2019 was sparked by cold-chain imports between September and December 2019. Several sporadic outbreaks in China last year were found to be related to imported cold-chain products from other parts of the world, including Europe and the American continent. In many of these places, signs of the coronavirus were discovered earlier than in Wuhan. Did the early outbreak in Wuhan originate from imported frozen food, the Global Times asks. “After China contained the early outbreak in April 2020, sporadic outbreaks occurred in Beijing and Dalian. We confirmed that the virus was imported from other countries or regions through cold-chain transportation,” Ma Huilai, an official from the China CDC told the Global Times. The outbreak in Qingdao, Shandong province, in October further proved the hypothesis as it was the first time that the coronavirus had been isolated from the outer packaging of cold-chain food products. “The coronavirus can be carried over long distances on cold-chain products and it is possible that the outbreak in Wuhan's Huanan seafood market in December 2019 was sparked by cold-chain imports,” Ma added.

Liang Wannian, team leader of the Chinese side of the WHO-China joint expert team, also told the Global Times that the study on cold-chain transmission should be carried out globally. “A retrospective study should be conducted on international logistic companies and frozen food suppliers for the Huanan seafood market in 2019, including nucleic acid testing of stock samples and serum testing of workers involved. The study should also examine the role of the cold chain in the spread of viruses,” Liang said. China also wants to set up a mechanism to track the international movements of cold-chain products so that the origin of a virus infection might be traced. It also wants more laboratory research to determine how the coronavirus can be carried by cold-chain products or packaging over long distances and trigger new local outbreaks. 390 of 678 stores in the Huanan seafood market had sold 29 types of cold-chain products from 20 countries and regions. Cold chain products from 37 countries or regions arrived in Wuhan from September to December 2019. The virus was likely brought into the market from countries that reported animal virus strains highly similar to human infections, experts said.

People who had close contact with a new asymptomatic carrier, as well as those in places near the carrier’s home and workplace, have all tested negative after the case was identified in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. A total of 127,478 tests turned out negative. The asymptomatic carrier delivered meals and cleaned rooms at the Tokai Hotel, a quarantine site in Yuexiu district. It is thought that she was infected while collecting trash from the room of a person in quarantine, one of 103 in the hotel. Lin Keqing, Executive Vice Governor of Guangdong, Zhang Shuofu, Party Secretary of Guangzhou, and Wen Guohui, Mayor of Guangzhou, held a meeting to discuss the epidemic situation and ordered checks of all quarantine hotels in the city.

Chinese vaccine producers showed their most advanced products, including updated vaccines that can resist coronavirus mutations, and promising Covid-19 drugs, at the 2021 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing. China National Biotec Group (CNBG), a subsidiary of Sinopharm, presented four Covid-19 vaccines at the fair, including two inactivated vaccines, one recombinant protein vaccine and one mRNA vaccine. The two inactivated vaccines are the updated version of those being used around the world and proven effective against mutations. Visitors who are not vaccinated against Covid-19 were not allowed to attend the fair. This overview is based on reports by the China Daily, Global Times, Shanghai Daily and South China Morning Post.