Covid 19 coronavirus: China suggests virus may have reached Wuhan through frozen meat products, including ‘Australian steak’

As the origin of Covid-19 continues to baffle researchers around the world, a state media outlet in China suggested that it may have reached Wuhan province via frozen food imported from countries, including Australia.

An article in the Global Times over the weekend argued that Western countries had tried to “change the narrative of their own shortcomings” by accusing Wuhan of being “where the coronavirus started.”

“Given that the growing sporadic outbreaks in China were found to be related to imported cold chain products, and that other parts of the world, including Europe and the Americas, reportedly discovered signs of the coronavirus earlier than in Wuhan, a new one emerges Hypothesis: Did the early outbreak in Wuhan originate from imported frozen foods? “the post wrote.

The first cases of Covid-19 were linked to a controversial “wet market,” and Chinese experts said in January that the virus had likely passed from wild animals to humans.

In April, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an independent investigation into the origins of the virus, prompting a furious reaction from China, which has since imposed a series of tariffs on Australian commercial products as stocks deteriorate. relations.

In the face of international criticism about its handling of the initial outbreak, China has backed off, saying the virus may have started abroad and arrived in frozen food packaging.

Chinese officials have previously claimed to have detected coronavirus in frozen products, including chicken wings from Brazil, squid from Russia, shrimp from Ecuador, pork from Germany and salmon from Norway.

In New Zealand, researchers tried to determine whether a mysterious Covid-19 outbreak in August could have been transported into the country in frozen food or even remained frozen in a cold storage facility for weeks. One of the people who tested positive for the virus was an employee at an Americold refrigeration store in Mt Wellington.

The World Health Organization has previously said that there is no evidence that the virus is transmitted in this way, but the Chinese government has now duplicated the theory.

“More and more evidence suggests that frozen seafood or meat products likely spread the virus from countries with the epidemic to our country,” said Chinese epidemiologist Wu Zunyou in a recent interview posted on the government website, The New York reported. Times.

The Global Times article admits that there is no proof yet, but that the theory “cannot be ruled out.” His reporters spoke with several former traders from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, one of whom said that “actually the frozen products in China are clean, but I don’t know the ones from abroad.”

The newspaper said the Wuhan market used to sell “imported cold chain seafood, such as king crab and Arctic shellfish, as well as meat products from Brazil and Germany.”

“The city also imported Australian steak, Chilean cherries and Ecuadorian seafood before 2019, according to information on the website of the city’s trade office,” wrote the Global Times.

“Statements released by the Hubei Provincial Commerce Department show that in 2018 and 2019, foreign trade companies have imported meat from Canada, Brazil and Spain.”

The article said that customs data showed that there was a 174 percent increase in imports of frozen products in Hubei province in 2019 compared to the previous year.

“The idea never crossed our minds, but now it seems plausible that the virus was imported into Wuhan through imported cold chain products,” Wuhan University disease researcher Yang Zhanqiu said to the Global Times.

An anonymous Beijing-backed expert told the newspaper that “theoretically, coronavirus from other countries may have caused the early outbreak in Wuhan, but we lack evidence.”

“We cannot conclude so far whether the coronavirus existed in other countries before the first cases were shown in Wuhan,” he said.

The state newspaper People’s Daily also published an article on November 25 titled “Covid-19 Did Not Start in Wuhan, Central China, But It Can Arrive Through Frozen Food and Imported Packaging – Experts.”