FILE PHOTO: A police officer wearing a face mask walks outside the Xinfadi wholesale market, which has been closed for business after new coronavirus infections were detected, in Beijing, June 13, 2020. BEIJING: China has found the trading sections for meat and seafood in Beijing's wholesale food market to be severely contaminated with the new coronavirus and suspects the area's low temperature and high humidity may have been contributing factors, officials said on Thursday .
Their preliminary report comes as the country's capital tackles a resurgence of COVID-19 cases over the past week linked to the massive Xinfadi food centre, which houses warehouses and trading halls in an area the size of nearly 160 soccer pitches.READ: China says it must improve hygiene in markets after Beijing COVID-19 outbreak
Among the patients who work at the Xinfadi market, most serve at seafood and aquatic product stalls, followed by the beef and mutton section, and patients from the seafood market showed symptoms earlier than others, Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a daily briefing on Thursday.
Low temperatures favourable to viral survival as well as high humidity might be possible explanations for why seafood markets could be a source of outbreaks based on a preliminary assessment, Wu said, cautioning that further investigation was necessary.