China finds heavy coronavirus traces in seafood, meat sections of Beijing food market

[Mrs. Overall]

Source: Reuters

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 center, which houses warehouses and trading halls in an area the size of nearly 160 soccer pitches. The latest outbreak infected more than 100 people and raised fears of wider contagion in China.

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 favorable 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.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-seafood-idUSKBN23P20T?taid=5eeb77ca2939cf00014a65ad&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

[soothsayer]

1. Is this why meat processing plants and abattoirs

...have such terrible outbreaks?

Aside from what I assume are crowded conditions.

Interesting.

[CrispyQ]

4. I've always thought the horrific environment was partly why the virus thrived in slaughterhouses. -n

[Strelnikov_]

5. Very possible . . . hey, wait . . . gotta keep hush hush RE big Ag in Iowa

It's policy. Profits could be impacted.

[Crowman2009]

2. They look like the meat markets out of 1800's america.

[OhZone]

3. So for the consumer -

You should -

cook all meats and seafood?

Wear masks out everywhere?

Don't touch your face unless you've scrubbed your hands well?

[Wellstone ruled]

6. Thanks for the post.

As someone who worked the Kill Floor as a Part Timer some Fifty years ago,I know about the 40 degree Temps as well as everything being dripping wet. Just another Summer Job needed to pay for Tuition.

[FailureToCommunicate]

7. And, unbelievably, some "wet markets" are still open!

[Igel]

10. "Wet market" is a difficult term.

I've been to fish mongers that were the equivalent, both in Galveston (TX) and in Baltimore and in California. Sometimes different vendors, but bins of ice and fish, tables for cleaning. Those were all "normal" food--typical food critters. We've got most of the zoonotic diseases that we're going to get, unless nature decides to get creative.

Some in China veer towards the exotic. Not just bass and salmon, beef and mutton, but pangolin and bat, sea cucumber and puffin. A lot of the less common critters used as food provide novel viruses. Always a fun thing.

[torius]

13. Wet market

Means they hose the floor down. Some sell only produce. They sell perishables as opposed to dry goods. The wildlife markets are the ones that may have launched the virus. Those markets obviously exist, but are not common, in China. The media got the terms messed up.

[FailureToCommunicate]

14. Hmmm. The media has used the term since January. If that's not the correct term...

what should they be called?

These wild animal, live kill, disgusting markets, or one of them at least, are the source of the Covid 19 virus, as best scientists can discern.

[torius]

15. Wildlife markets. Nt

[IronLionZion]

8. I like meat and seafood too

but can do without for a while until they can get this pandemic under control. To protect the workers since it seems impossible to keep them safe from this virus.

And the American meat processors completely lied to stay open so they can export it. The American worker shortages was never about feeding Americans.

[DippyDem]

9. Is this the end of sushi food?

I doubt that the Trump administration will allow this idea to get out. I quit sushi based on this news and will wash my hands well after handling meats and seafood for cooking. That makes sense to me hearing about the slaughterhouse pandemics all over the US.

[yaesu]

11. I've read that the virus hates high humidity, is that even a thing? Does anyone even know

anything about this virus?

[BigmanPigman]

12. I thought it hated warm temperatures?!?

No one knows much about this virus at all.