China blames overseas deliveries for Omicron outbreak — Analysis
Chinese authorities have declared mail from Canada a possible source for an Omicron infection in Beijing.
Covid-19 is often associated with close personal contact. Health experts around the globe believe that the virus spreads primarily through coughing, breathing, and sneezing. China’s health authorities, however, have recently claimed that an Omicron strain survived a long trip from Canada to China in a mail shipment of documents that eventually caused an infection in a Chinese citizen.
A Chinese patient was diagnosed with an Omicron infection last Saturday – the first such case in the Chinese capital of Beijing. This is the “possibility”The infection was caused by the infected person coming into contact with the mail “cannot be ruled out,” Chinese media reported, citing Pang Xinghuo, the deputy director of Beijing’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Last Tuesday, the patient received the Canadian package. Testing results revealed that Omicron was found on the outer and inner surfaces of the box as well as in the contents. Chinese media were also added.
Pang stated that this virus was similar to the one in North America and Singapore December 2021. The mail was sent from Canada on January 7 and arrived in Beijing via the US and China’s Hong Kong region.
Chinese authorities also tracked eight other people who were in touch with the mail, but their Covid-19 results came back negative. A second international mail shipment arrived by the same route, but was not opened. “positive”The media reported on Covid-19.
Another similar case was reported in China’s southeastern city of Shenzhen, where a local employee got infected with Omicron allegedly after interacting with imported goods without sufficient protection, Shenzhen’s health authorities said on Monday. It is believed that the worker also received packages from North America.
China has previously claimed that Covid-19 was found in several imported products, such as food and frozen fish. Yang Zhanqiu, a Wuhan-based virologist, told China’s Global Times newspaper that the virus could survive several days at room temperature and around a month at minus 30 degrees Celsius. He said that the virus could survive for several years if it is exposed to temperatures below minus 80 degrees Celsius.
As China prepares for the Winter Olympics, this news was received. The Chinese authorities already said that the newly detected Omicron case does not mean any increased health threat to the sports event, since all the patient’s contacts were successfully traced and the places this person visited were checked as well and no traces of the virus were found.
China did take additional measures to make sure the event ran smoothly. China announced on Monday that it would not be selling tickets to Winter Olympics events for general sale. Foreign viewers were not allowed to enter China previously.
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