Beijing: China’s health authority has confirmed the detection and isolation of living novel coronavirus on the outer packaging of imported frozen marine fish in the port city of Qingdao.
It is for the first time in the world that living novel coronavirus has been isolated from the outer packaging of cold-chain food, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement on Saturday.
The authorities in Qingdao, where a new cluster of COVID-19 cases were reported recently, conducted tests on all of its about 11 million population. No new clusters of cases were found after the tests, the local authorities said.
In July, China suspended imports of frozen shrimp after the deadly virus was found on packages and the inner wall of a container.
Global COVID cases top 39.6 mn mark
The overall number of global coronavirus cases has topped 39.6 million, while the deaths have soared to more than 1,108,800, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
As of Sunday morning, the total number of cases stood at 39,608,809 and the fatalities increased to 1,108,800, the University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.
The US is the worst-hit country with the world’s highest number of cases and deaths at 8,106,384 and 219,286, respectively, according to the CSSE. (Agencies)
