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COVID hunters investigate frozen food risk

Experts in New Zealand are racing to figure out just how the 100 days of the country being COVID-free could have ended.

Virus hunters believe there is a possibility the disease could have been freighted back into the country in frozen food or even remains that had been frozen and left in a storage facility for weeks on end.

The concerns have been sparked by the fact that one of the family members apart of the COVID outbreak that left experts wondering, worked in a cold storage facility.

New Zealand’s director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said on Wednesday that “environmental testing” is being conducted at the cold storage facility where the person worked.

“We do know from studies overseas, that actually, the virus can survive in some refrigerated environments for quite some time,” he said.

“We start by looking at all the options and ruling then out, and that’s the position we’re in at the moment.

“In general the role of surfaces for transmitting the virus has probably been overemphasised in the past.

“There’s much more focus now on transmission in indoor environments, and respiratory droplets and aerosols.”

Bloomfield says there is evidence suggesting the virus could have been through food, freight or food packaging.

“I know that the virus re-emerging in our community has caused alarm and the unknown is scary. That causes anxiety for many of us.

“We are working hard to put together the pieces of the puzzle as to how this family got the virus. We are testing all close and casual contacts.”

Wu Zunyou, Chief Epidemiologist of China’s Center for Diseases Prevention and Control, told Chinese state media earlier this year year that the virus can survive on the surface of frozen food for up to three months.

However, infectious Diseases physician Professor Peter Collingnon told news.com.au that he was still sceptical COVID-19 had been “imported” into New Zealand through frozen food.

“But I have always worried when people talk about elimination, it can be so mild in people in their 30s and 40s that it can just be there bubbling away without you knowing,’’ he said.

The cold storage facility where the NZ man worked in Mount Wellington has been shut down for testing and cleaning with 160 staff across all the facilities tested for COVID-19.

Tags:
coronavirus, frozen food, food risk, COVID, New Zealand