If the Covid-19 was observed for the first time in China, at the end of 2019, the country has to date only recorded a handful of new daily cases, most of them generally travelers coming from abroad.
But extensive screening campaigns for imported food were organized recently after the discovery of traces of coronavirus on packaging.
China has contained the epidemic since the spring, thanks to draconian measures (massive screening, confinement, quarantines on arrival on the territory, monitoring of movements) and the wearing of masks.
However, she reported on Wednesday two cold chain employees sick in Tianjin (in the north of the country), amid growing mistrust of imported frozen food, linked to several outbreaks of infection.
Brazilian beef, Indian fish ...
In the city of Wuhan, where the virus was first detected, authorities said on Friday they had detected SARS-CoV-2 in frozen beef from Brazil.
Four other municipalities last week reported the presence of coronavirus in samples of frozen food from overseas - including Argentine pork and Indian fish.
China Customs said Friday it has so far tested more than 800,000 samples of imported frozen products and suspended shipments from 99 foreign suppliers.
The suspicions date back to June, in the midst of infection in Beijing, when traces of the virus were detected on equipment used to treat imported salmon.
As for the two employees of Tianjin, a large port metropolis located 100 km south-east of the capital, they “had both previously been in contact with contaminated food products from the cold chain,” the authorities said.
A "possible" transmission
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "there is currently no evidence that people can catch Covid-19 from food or food packaging."
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The transmission of the disease through frozen food is "possible, but it has not been studied exhaustively, so we do not know the extent of this spread", also believes Paul Tambyah, expert in infectious diseases at the National University of Singapore.
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At the end of October, the WHO announced that the international mission responsible for determining the origin of the coronavirus had met for the first time, virtually, with Chinese experts.
The WHO wants "a set of long and exhaustive investigations", both in China and in other countries, to try to determine the origin of the virus.