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BEIJING: China has tested more than a quarter of a million people for the coronavirus after some new cases were detected in the southern city of Chengdu.
An elderly couple was diagnosed as confirmed cases on Monday (December 7), and authorities have been tracking their close contacts and analyzing food samples.
Local health officials said the virus was detected in food stored in his refrigerator and on a cutting board in his apartment.
As of Tuesday, 255,200 city residents had been cleaned for COVID-19 tests, the municipal health commission said, with six confirmed cases and one asymptomatic patient.
Residents queuing to take nucleic acid tests for COVID-19 in Chengdu, in western China’s Sichuan province, after new cases were detected in the city. (Photo: STR / AFP)
Schools and kindergartens in the Pidu district where the cases arose have been closed, according to local authorities, with students and teachers to be quarantined and tested for the virus.
Images on state television showed people in a park lining up to be examined by health officials in hazmat suits.
China, where the virus first appeared late last year, has largely controlled domestic broadcasts, with state media blaming recent groups for frozen food imports and other shipments.
The World Health Organization says there is currently no evidence that people can contract COVID-19 from food or food packaging.
Almost a year after the virus first emerged in the central city of Wuhan, China is stepping up a campaign to question its origins.
A health worker performs a nucleic acid test on a resident in Chengdu, in western China’s Sichuan Province, after new cases of COVID-19 were detected in the city. (Photo: STR / AFP)
A Tianjin health official said in November that the city’s infections can be traced to imported cold chain products, such as pig heads from North America, and said the virus strains found were similar to those from Europe and United States.
China’s government is notoriously allergic to criticism, and its first missteps in Wuhan are among the country’s most politically sensitive issues.
The families accuse the city government of initially concealing the appearance of the outbreak in December 2019, pressuring doctors to keep quiet and denying person-to-person transmission.
The danger was hidden from citizens for weeks, allowing the virus to erupt into a global pandemic.
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