After the Pangolin and the bat, it is the turn of the salmon being placed at the bench of the animals by the Chinese, accused of playing a role in the transmission of the Covid-19. And the evidence would be damning : traces of the cursed virus would have been detected on boards used to cut up the salmon in the gigantic market Xinfadi, Beijing, this new cluster that is of concern to the authorities.
The news quickly made the rounds of the country, making the salmon a persona non grata within the supermarkets and restaurants of the capital. The imports from Europe have been interrupted, report our colleagues from the BBC this Thursday, June 18. The chinese centre for disease control (CDC) has yet made the lawyer of the salmon, stating that it was unlikely that his client scales is a host – even when an intermediate host of the new coronavirus. Too late.
also Read Michel Richard – Letter to the pangolin
The country has started to pack on Thursday 11 June 2020, when Beijing has identified its first case of local Covid-19 after 57 days without a new infection. Since then, almost 150 cases have been confirmed. And most people have a link with the market, Xinfadi, a huge structure where rush every day tens of thousands of people. The panic has seized the people when a quarantine of samples taken on the market were found to be positive at Covid-19.
“The coronavirus can not grow in food”
The CDC is not the only one to take the defence of the salmon. “All the known evidence to date suggest that this type of receptor exists only in mammals, not the fish “, indicates, in fact, Cheng Gong, a virologist at the University of Tsinghua. However, if the epidemiologist-in-chief of the CDC, Wu Zunyou, confirms that the fish can’t catch the virus in their natural habitat, he explains that it is possible that they have been contaminated by workers during capture or transport.
Always is it that the authorities do not understand how the virus was able to thrive in the market, or where it came from. As ” the coronavirus can not grow in food ; they need a host animal or human to develop “, as stated by the world Health Organization (WHO) in a document published on its website. It considers that it is “highly unlikely” that the virus can be spread through food packaging.
Read also where are the new viruses
China imports about 80 000 tonnes of salmon chilled and frozen each year from countries such as Chile, Norway, the Faroe islands and Australia, according to the Global Times. However, the virus is not widespread in most of these countries – and Norway said that her salmon was not the source of the contamination, after that the producers of the country have seen orders from China cancelled this weekend.
Consult our folder : Coronavirus : the world stop
