Live traces of the coronavirus were found on frozen seafood packages in a Chinese city that recently suffered an outbreak of the deadly disease, the government’s health officials said.
The discovery was made amid an investigation into the recent cluster of COVID-19 cases in Qingdao.
“It has been confirmed that contact with outer packaging contaminated by the new coronavirus can cause infection,” the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement.
The report did not suggest that any person caught the virus from the frozen cod packaging, which came from an unspecified foreign country.
The World Health Organization maintains that it is “not necessary to disinfect food packaging materials” — although officials stress that you should wash your hands thoroughly after handling frozen foods and their packaging.
China has been one of the only countries that has suggested the deadly virus can be transmitted through frozen food. Officials had said that an outbreak in Beijing this summer could have come from imported salmon.
Until the most recent outbreak, China had not reported any new coronavirus cases in nearly two months. Officials say two dock workers are believed to have infected a dozen people at a hospital.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says on it’s site that, “It may be possible that people can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object, such as a food package or dining ware that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes. However, this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”