The Cold War with Covid-1924 Aug 2020 22:54
Research: Freezing Covid-19
Outbreaks of Covid-19 in countries which have not had cases for long periods may be explained by the fact that the virus can survive on frozen meat and fish for up to three weeks, according to a study from researchers at universities based in Singapore. Scientists added a sample of the virus to cubes of salmon, chicken and pork before freezing them for 21 days. Traces of infectious Covid-19 were still found on the food after this time, leading the researchers to conclude that ‘importation of contaminated food and food packaging is a feasible source for such outbreaks and a source of clusters within existing outbreaks’. They also warned that an infected food handler could be ‘an index case of a new outbreak’. Professor Wood, head of Veterinary Medicine at Cambridge, praised the study: ‘The authors discuss, very sensibly, how it is important that factory workers must be incentivised not to go to work when symptomatic or in contact with Covid-19 cases.’