A Chinese expert has claimed that the strain of the coronavirus which has seen a new wave of cases centred around a Beijing food market originated in Europe.
Yang Peng an expert from Beijing Center for Diseases Prevention and Control (Beijing CDC) made the claims in an interview with China Central Television yesterday (Sunday) as 51 confirmed cases of the virus are believed to have originated from the Xinfadi wholesale food market in Beijing.
Speaking about the new cases, Yang said the preliminary analysis showed that samples of the virus from the market were stains that had been imported into China from abroad.
Yang said that genome sequencing had shown that the strains had come from Europe with investigators working to determine exactly how they had reached the market.
He went on to say there two main theories being looked into, on being that contaminated seafood and meat had been imported into the market from abroad, or that people in the market had spread the virus through sneezing and coughing.
The researcher went on to say an epidemiological investigation will be launched into the cases, while nucleic acid tests on more than 46,000 residents living near the market will be carried out.
Twenty-four testing stations have reportedly been set up in the district, with over 10,000 tests having already been administered.
Vice head of Fengtai district government, Zhang Jie, said that 5,803 swab samples had been tested, all coming back negative.
Officials said that 394 close contacts of those to the market cases had been tracked so far, with 111 people being placed into quarantine at “designated places” while the others are isolating at home.
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Story By: Alex Cope, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: AsiaWire Report
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