I found this news article from Reuters interesting:
BEIJING (Reuters) – The Chinese city of Jinan said over the weekend it had found coronavirus on beef and tripe and their packaging from Brazil, Bolivia and New Zealand, while two other provincial capitals detected it on packaging on pork from Argentina.
China is ramping up testing on frozen foods after repeatedly detecting the virus on imported products, triggering disrupting import bans, even as the World Health Organization says the risk of catching COVID-19 from frozen food is low.
Brazil or Bolivia I could understand but New Zealand? It’s reputedly been very successful in controlling its outbreak of COVID-19. I think that by far the greatest likelihoods are (in descending order):
- There’s something wrong with the tests that are being used.
- The Chinese authorities are upset with New Zealand.
- The samples from New Zealand acquired their traces somehow during handling.
- There’s more COVID-19 in New Zealand than they’ve reported.
It’s that last alternative that I find thought-provoking.
