Report by : Gan Yung Chyan
/ KUCINTA SETIA
Image courtesy : Caroline Attwood, Unsplash
On the recent covid outbreaks in Beijing that involve salmon, Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist of the China National Center for Disease Prevention & Control (China CDC), pointed out that it is still difficult to determine what the source of covid infection in the wholesale market is. So it is impossible to conclude that salmon is the source of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (covi).
According to Sina News report, Wu Zunyou said that although the Beijing CDC has detected SARS-CoV-2 on the cutting board of imported salmon, it cannot be concluded that salmon is the source of SARS-CoV-2, because all people or items that come into contact with the cutting board are possible (the source of covid infection)
He explained that maybe the owner of the chopping board was a virus-infected person. During speeches, droplets fell on the chopping board. For example, the customer who came to purchase may be a virus-infected person. In the course of the host's communication or bargaining, the chopping board may also be contaminated. For example, other items sold by the owner of the chopping board may be contaminated, carrying covi, and may also contaminate the chopping board.
Therefore, Zunyou believes that it is necessary to collect samples through different channels to verify and evaluate which one is more likely. The Xinfadi wholesale market has a large flow of people. Too many types of items are sold and too complicated. It is not clear in a short time. Only by checking the flow of all people and items can it be possible to show the whole picture.
Wu Zunyou said that before the outbreaks, Beijing had no local confirmed cases for more than 50 consecutive days. It is reasonable to say that there should be no virus in Beijing. If epidemiological investigations and big data analysis confirm that the current confirmed cases and those with positive nucleic acid tests have no history of going out, they are all really infected in Beijing, then covi may be imported or the goods may be contaminated outside Beijing. The transport that imported goods carried the virus in. Therefore, the source channels of the new goods must be carefully sported out.
Wu Zunyou also explained that wild animals and imported goods carrying coronaviruses are two different concepts. Wild animals such as civet cats and bats can carry coronaviruses themselves. The virus multiplies in their bodies but they do not get sick. Imported items with traces of covi mean that workers infected with covid have contaminated these items when handling the items. After the contaminated items are imported into the country, others are infected during the process.
Therefore, wild animals carry coronaviruses, and seafood products may be vectors of coronaviruses after being contaminated. Coronavirus is not carried in the fish body by nature. However, after the contaminated fish was caught, the workers were infected with covi, which may cause the surface of the fish to be contaminated, and the contaminated seafood was shipped to China. The Chinese workers were infected during the treatment process, which led to further human-to-human transmission. Of course, this is only a speculation and needs to be further confirmed by epidemiological investigations.
He suggested that under the current situation, it is necessary to do inspection and quarantine of fresh, fruit and vegetable goods. Special attention needs to be paid to two situations: One is imported goods from overseas. The current overseas epidemic situation is more serious than that of China. Special attention should be paid to items imported from countries with severe epidemic conditions. The other is frozen goods, including seafood, beef and mutton. Under these circumstances, quarantine measures need to be strengthened.
Source : Lianhe Zaobao
No comments:
Post a Comment