After spending months dealing with coronavirus, there is still no confirmation on its origin and end. Where did this virus come from? How does it spread? how can it be killed? Questions like these are still a mystery. Adding up to this, many people are interested to know if they can get coronavirus from frozen food or refrigerated food.
Health experts are warning people against eating raw food or even frozen food because coronavirus was initially found in Wuhan’s seafood market. Recently, new cluster cases were reported from Shanghai supermarket But there is no scientific evidence of coronavirus from frozen food to be reported. People are only warned for handling these foods, eating them, however, has no such risk.
Also read- Will There Ever Be a ‘Normal World’ Again?
Wu Zunyou the chief Epidemiologist at the Center for Diseases Prevention and Control (CDC), China. He says that this virus can be found on surfaces even that of food surfaces for more than three months. He also shared that the CDC is suspecting that contaminated foods were involved in the spread of coronavirus in Beijing.
Jin Dong-Yun, who teaches Virology at The University of Hong Kong says that this new virus SARS-CoV-2 has no sufficient information to tell if someone can get coronavirus from frozen food. Also, it needs to be investigated in detail that touching the food (meat) is behind this supposed spread or eating the food directly.
A couple of days ago, New Zealand which was one of the earliest countries to eradicate coronavirus has reported a new case in the last 100 days. This new case is suspected to cause by imported food packs.
The health experts are raising high concerns that coronavirus from frozen food may be real because one of the patients have reported ordering a similar product that was imported from another country.
Earlier, China has also reported finding coronavirus in trace amounts on the frozen chicken wings and the shrimp’s packs that were imported by China from Brazil and Ecuador.
Chinese health officials are warning people to avoid buying imported food packs especially meat products. Still, researchers believe the chances of getting coronavirus from frozen food are fewer.
While it is possible, it is highly unlikely to happen because the virus, without a human host, is weak. But freezing a food product or refrigerating could be justified for the massive spread of the virus. Yet frozen surface linked transmission is rare.
Also read- Data Suggests Coronavirus Case Rates Are Neither Rising Nor Falling
China was able to find coronavirus traces in food packages in Xiamen. Dalian, and Pingxiang but World Health Organization find this a not a high concern saying there is no evidence of food-related transmission of the virus.
It has also urged people to be safe and stress-free from buying and using refrigerated food. It has also verified that reports coming from China have a low frequency. They tested hundreds of thousands of the food packs and even less than 10 of these packs were reported contaminated.
It is not likely for this virus to survive on the food packs. The process of transfer and delivery takes so much time which can practically kill the virus without a human host. It dries out and eventually becomes non-infectious.
