Beijing had gone 55 days without a locally transmitted case of Covid-19 until a sudden outbreak hit the city last week, leading to warnings from disease experts that the virus remains a global threat even as some countries are easing quarantines and other measures to contain it.
Because the virus has already shown its ability to rapidly spread across borders through transport networks, the new outbreak in Beijing is likely to serve as a warning to all cities and countries about the threat of reinfections as they lift restrictions to get businesses and economies working again.
“As far as we know, [the virus] Sars-CoV-2 cannot infect aquatic food animals, such as salmon or other fish,” he said. “I suspect the physical distancing and hand hygiene measures were suboptimal,” said the professor of neurology and epidemiology who serves as executive director of The George Institute, China, at Peking University Health Science Centre in Beijing.
“All nations will have to maintain vigilance for a resurgence of cases and ensure that they have the capacity for rapid and voluminous testing, effective contact tracing and the willingness to reinstitute restrictions in the event that a resurgence of cases occurs,” Senanayake said. “Most places of origin of salmon in Hong Kong are Norway, Canada and to a lesser extent Chile,” said Lee Choi-wah, chairman of the Hong Kong Chamber of Seafood Merchants. “Frozen and fresh salmon usually come to Hong Kong directly by ship and air, and don’t come through mainland China. ”