New Zealand health officials are investigating whether imported packaging with frozen food could be the source of the country’s fresh COVID-19 outbreak.
New Zealand reported four new cases of the virus on Tuesday, with an additional 14 cases on Thursday. One of the initial cases was discovered in a worker handling imported products at a frozen food storage room. Prior to the outbreak, no new infections were seen in the country for more than 100 days.
Although officials believe the source of the outbreak is more likely an infected person who is undergoing strict border control measures, they are investigating whether the virus in the country could have been on packaging with frozen food.
“We do not rule out anything,” Ashley Bloomfield, New Zealand’s director general of public health, told a news conference on Wednesday. “We know from studies abroad that the virus can actually survive a long time in some cool environments.”
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A survey involving surface testing for contamination is taking place at a local facility operated by Americold, a US-based food cold storage and transportation company. Thursday’s new cases included three additional workers at the facility, with most other cases involving family members of the workers.
“We work directly with the Department of Health in New Zealand and the health and safety of our staff remains our top priority,” said Americold Director of Communications Angie Hansen Newsweek in a statement. “We will not speculate on how the virus was introduced as its origin.”
“The health department’s investigation is ongoing and they are determining options as they go,” Hansen added. “We will continue to work fully together on their efforts.”
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An Americold official told The New Zealand Herald it is “unlikely” that the virus could have spread at the company’s facility, noting a series of protection measures involving workers wearing personal protective equipment when handling shipments.
Experts say there is no evidence to suggest that the virus is transmitted through food packaging of any kind. It is not clear how long the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 can survive after freezing, although studies of similar viruses have suggested that it could survive for up to two years.
Amandine Gamble, an infection control expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Ars Technica that spreading the virus through frozen food packaging would be “unlikely”, but “not impossible”, due to several factors affecting the virus. order would have to be overcome to remain viable on a surface during transport.
“It is highly plausible that SARS-CoV-2 may remain viable on frozen surfaces for several days,” Gamble told the outlet. “However, it is not clear whether the virus can be easily transmitted through contaminated surfaces … it would be very bad luck.”
New Zealand officials are investigating the origin of the outbreak under investigation, while conducting contact tracing to limit further spread. The country has had one of the most successful attempts in the world to contain the virus, with the vast majority of 1,589 total cases, including only 22 deaths, that occurred in the early stages of the pandemic.
