In September 2020, during the routine nucleic acid inspection of the personnel in Qingdao Port, China, two stevedores were found to be SARS-CoV-2 positive and were identified as asymptomatic infection. The Qingdao Center for Disease Control and Prevention conducted an epidemiological investigation to identify the source of infection. Both cases had no COVID-19 case contact history and no foreign personnel contact history, however, both carried out loading and unloading of frozen cod on a particular date in September 2020. In this outbreak in Qingdao, the authors of this article directly isolated SARS-CoV-2 from cod outer package’s surface swab samples in a first-time event which demonstrates that frozen food transportation can import SARS-CoV-2 virus.

 

Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Cod outer package, Frozen food

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CiteScore: 3.8

 

ISSN 2590-0536

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bsheal.2020.11.003 

Source: Cold-chain transportation in the frozen food industry may have caused a recurrence of COVID-19 cases in destination