Beijing Xinfadi epidemic virus comes from cold chain food experts： keeping imports has its policy considerations.

Cctv news(Reporter Kan Chunyu) Recently, Tsinghua University, Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Institute of Pathogenic Biology of China Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking University and Beijing Genome Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly published a research paper entitled "The reappearance of COVID-19 epidemic in Beijing may be due to cold chain food pollution" in the National Science Review. This paper points out that cold chain transportation may be a new way to spread in Covid-19.

From positive packaging to detection of COVID-19 live virus.

The paper points out that, combined with the epidemiological investigation of Xinfadi market, the researchers initially determined that booth S14 in the aquatic product area on the first floor of the comprehensive trading hall (beef and mutton hall) may be the source of infection. Further investigation shows that chilled salmon is the only product from overseas among the items sold in booth S14, and the stall owner bought salmon imported from a country with Covid-19 epidemic on May 30 from a supplier (Company X) and cut it in the market for retail. Therefore, the cold storage of all salmon suppliers in Xinfadi market was sampled and tested, and it was found that X company had 5 fish swab samples.Covid-19 nucleic acid positive.Among them, the viral genome sequence obtained by sequencing in an unopened fish swab sample is highly homologous to the virus in human and environmental samples in this epidemic.

This means that cold chain imported food from overseas epidemic areas is very likely to be the source of this new outbreak virus.

There is also a crucial corner in the jigsaw puzzle traced back to the source of Covid-19 — — On October 17th, official website, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention of China, announced that during the traceability investigation of the COVID-19 epidemic in Qingdao, it was detected from the positive samples of imported frozen cod carried by workers.Isolate live virus.

Prior to this, there were 17 cases in China in which Covid-19 nucleic acid of cold-chain frozen products was positive, but it was the first time to isolate COVID-19 live virus, which had no precedent in the world.

Expert: Maintaining cold chain imports has its policy considerations.

Once relevant cases appear, the public opinion field will have the voice of "prohibiting the import of cold chain food". In contrast, it is China’s huge imported food market. According to customs data, in 2019, China imported 4.841 million tons of all kinds of meat and 6.265 million tons of aquatic products. This year, affected by the epidemic, in order to ensure market supply and stabilize prices, China’s imported meat has maintained rapid growth. From January to June 2020, China imported 4.75 million tons of meat (including offal).Compared with the same period of last year, the growth rate reached 73.5%.

Yi Jingtao, a professor at the Business School of Renmin University of China, believes that both the international market and the domestic market have a comprehensive impact on China’s trade policy decision on cold chain food. We should consider both the foreign trade relations at the international market level and the actual supply and demand situation at the domestic market level.

Professor Yi Jingtao said that the formulation of macro policies needs to take into account both domestic and international markets, but under the epidemic conditions,Positive or negative externalities at the international market level will be amplified.Therefore, the sensitivity of policy making to the external factors of the international market will be far greater than that of the internal factors of the domestic market.

At the same time, the country will pay more attention to the stability and maintenance of trade relations with other countries. "It will consider whether it will affect the sustainable development of trade relations between trading partners, and the policy focus will be more delicate and precise. The competent authorities will make relatively soft and flexible policy design under the conditions of pre-supervision and risk control."

Professor Yi Jingtao pointed out that Otawa, the source country of imported cold chain food, and China have signed bilateral or multilateral trade agreements, and they are mainly BRICS countries. "China has always attached great importance to trade relations among BRICS countries, and it also needs to cooperate with BRICS countries in many international affairs, so it will be more pragmatic and effective in foreign trade relations and pay more attention to mutual assistance and cooperation under epidemic conditions."

"On the other hand, the factor is to comprehensively consider the actual domestic demand. Since the beginning of the epidemic, there have been concerns about the shortage of materials in the society, and the prices of some necessities have also risen for a period of time, thenStabilize domestic consumer demand through imports.It will also be considered in policy design. "Professor Yi Jingtao said.

Take Ecuador’s frozen South American white shrimp as an example. As a representative product with resource endowment, white shrimp has occupied a stable position in international trade, so it is more important for Ecuador to keep exporting. At the same time, China’s consumption level is escalating, and meeting the growing demand for high-end quality is also a consideration. Considering various factors at home and abroad, policy making will leave enough window observation period and camera decision-making space.

There is no need to stay away from cold chain food.

Then, as consumers, do we need to keep a distance from the imported cold chain food on the market?

Let’s look at such a set of data. As of September 15th, 24 provinces in China have submitted 2.98 million test results, including 670,000 cold chain food and packaging samples, 1.24 million employees samples and 1.07 million environmental samples. Only 22 food and packaging samples were positive for Covid-19 nucleic acid, and the viral nucleic acid load was low.

Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist of China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that since the outbreak of the epidemic in Xinfadi, the country has paid attention to the safety of seafood, and has stepped up the detection. "For consumers, what is sold in the market should be said to have been tested. If the tests are not found, then there is such a thing, even if there is a small amount of pollution, it is impossible to spread."

It is clear from the disease control that the risk of infection of consumers touching or eating cold chain food is very low. According to the circular, existing research and prevention and control practices show that COVID-19 is not a food-borne disease, and no infection caused by food intake has been found. So far, no cases of consumer infection due to contact with contaminated cold chain seafood have been found, and the risk of consumer infection in China is extremely low. At the same time, China’s relevant departments have strengthened Covid-19 monitoring and disinfection measures for imported cold-chain foods. Consumers should pay attention to keeping clean and separating raw and cooked foods, so that they can buy and eat imported fresh food normally.