- Sputnik International
Asia
Find top stories and features from Asia and the Pacific region. Keep updated on major political stories and analyses from Asia and the Pacific. All you want to know about China, Japan, North and South Korea, India and Pakistan, Southeast Asia and Oceania.

Chinese Epidemiologists Find Seafood Link Between COVID-19 Outbreaks in Beijing, Wuhan

© AP Photo / Mark SchiefelbeinA customer wears a face mask as he shops for seafood at a market in Beijing, Saturday, March 14, 2020. The United States declared a state of emergency Friday as many European countries went on a war footing amid mounting deaths as the world mobilized to fight the widening coronavirus pandemic. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.
A customer wears a face mask as he shops for seafood at a market in Beijing, Saturday, March 14, 2020. The United States declared a state of emergency Friday as many European countries went on a war footing amid mounting deaths as the world mobilized to fight the widening coronavirus pandemic. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.  - Sputnik International
Subscribe
BEIJING (Sputnik) - An epidemiological investigation of a new COVID-19 cluster at the Xinfadi wholesale food centre in Beijing has provided new insights into the Wuhan outbreak, Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Thursday.
"We have analysed the nature of infected persons' activities. We found that people who bought seafood contracted [coronavirus] more often than others," Wu said at a press conference.

Epidemiologists have also found that the workers who have had contact with seafood products also had their symptoms develop earlier than other infected people.

"We took a lot of samples from the market, from different surfaces, objects. After analysing the results, we found out that the most infected place was the hall with seafood products", the expert said, adding that there was meat too.

The findings led epidemiologists to link the outbreak in Beijing's Xinfadi food centre to the outbreak in the seafood market in Wuhan late last year.

"Back then we suspected that this [outbreak in the Wuhan seafood market] was animal-related. The results of our investigation in the Beijing market brought us back to Wuhan and gave us a new vector for solving the Wuhan outbreak riddle", Wu noted.

According to the epidemiologist, the virus seems to survive at fairly low temperatures, which explains its presence in seafood markets.

People wearing protective face masks are seen at a street market in Wuhan, the Chinese city hit the hardest by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in the Hubei province, China, May 14, 2020. - Sputnik International
Asia
Wuhan Government Bans Wild Animals Consumption, Trade

Beijing confirmed 21 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, detecting three asymptomatic carriers. All the cases are linked to Xinfadi. As many as 158 COVID-19 patients are now undergoing treatment in Beijing's hospitals, and 15 asymptomatic carriers are being monitored.

The current coronavirus pandemic began in China in December. Initial reports indicated that the epicenter of the outbreak was linked to a market in the city of Wuhan in the Hubei province.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала