Category: China
WHO mission to Wuhan finds possible signs of wider original #coronavirus outbreak in 2019
Investigators from the World Health Organization (WHO) looking into the origins of coronavirus in China have discovered signs the outbreak was much wider in Wuhan in December 2019 than previously thought, and are urgently seeking access to hundreds of thousands of blood samples from the city that China has not so far let them examine.
origin of the virus.
The researcher noted that they discovered there were more than a dozen strains of the virus in Wuhan as early as December 2019
Image by Eric Manzi from Pixabay
Bats in Thailand found with coronaviruses similar to Sars-cov-2
Horseshoe bats carrying coronaviruses very similar to the one that causes Covid-19 have been found in Thailand
The study found a coronavirus in the horseshoe bat Rhinolophus acuminatus in Thailand that was 91.5 per cent similar to Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
So far, the closest relative to Sars-CoV-2 has been detected in the horseshoe bat Rhinolophus affinis in China’s Yunnan province – with a genetic similarity of 96.2 per cent.
See also: A novel Sars-cov-2 related coronavirus in bats from Cambodia
By Marie Jullion – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3359176
New Zealand ice cream tests positive for #coronavirus in China
“Three samples of ice cream made from New Zealand-sourced milk powder and Ukrainian dried whey tested positive for COVID-19 in North China’s Tianjin, authorities announced Thursday. The company has been cordoned off and tracking of the sold products is ongoing.
The positive samples were discovered after they were sent for testing on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the ingredients include milk powder from New Zealand and dried whey from Ukraine.”
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202101/1212848.shtml
Did a review of virus samples collected from a Chinese mine cause the #coronavirus pandemic?
This research examines the activity at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in late 2019, when samples from a mineshaft associated with a suspected SARS outbreak were being reviewed. It proposes that spillover occurred during this review of samples including of a virus (BtCoV/4991) only 1% different to SARS-CoV-2 in its RdRp.
Image by fernando zhiminaicela from Pixabay
Sinovac #Coronavirus #Vaccine “significantly less effective than what previous data suggested”
The São Paulo-based Butantan Institute – which is running final-stage clinical trials for CoronaVac, manufactured by Beijing-based Sinovac – submitted new data to Brazil’s health regulator on Tuesday, listing an efficacy rate of 50.4 per cent. The numbers were confirmed at a press conference by officials from the research institute, which is funded by the São Paulo state government.
Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay
Chinese study finds most patients still show signs of ‘long #Covid’ six months later
The largest study of its kind found that most of those treated in a Wuhan hospital were still showing symptoms six months after being sent home
The most common problems were fatigue and difficulty in sleeping, but lung and kidney problems were also recorded
11 PCR tests required in China to confirm some #Covid19 infections
Dalian, Northeast China’s Liaoning Province, announced that it was extending the COVID-19 quarantine period to 21 days from 14 as the new cases in the recent COVID-19 outbreak in the city show a longer incubation period, faster transmission and more complex pattern.
Some patients tested positive for COVID-19 after taking 11 nucleic acid tests, while in some regions, cases were still found even after six rounds of mass testing, said Dalian authorities at a press conference on Monday.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202101/1211737.shtml
Image by lukasmilan from Pixabay
Beijing clamps down to fight #Covid surge
“Just one night after announcing it was entering the “wartime mode,” North China’s Hebei Province, which neighbors Chinese capital Beijing, began putting in place various COVID-19 prevention measures on Wednesday amid a sudden spike in coronavirus infections, including controls on highways passing through Hebei leading to Beijing and other provinces, stopping sales of railway tickets to Beijing, suspending classes in schools, implementing closed-off managements in residential communities in provincial capital Shijiazhuang, and taking sweeping nucleic acid tests.
Hebei reported 20 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and 43 asymptomatic cases on Tuesday, making it the place with the most daily newly added cases in China. Among all the cases, 19 confirmed ones and 41 asymptomatic ones are from Shijiazhuang the provincial capital.”
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202101/1212026.shtml
China traces #coronavirus cluster to contaminated trucks
China traced the now-contained Covid-19 outbreak last month in the northwestern Xinjiang autonomous region to contaminated freight trucks that transported export goods to neighboring countries.
The virus was discovered on the inside surface of multiple trucks in Kashgar, and the first case was traced to a loading worker who might have been infected through a contaminated truck, according to Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Object-to-person transmission of Covid-19 has gained attention after a recent outbreak in Shanghai was tracked to an air cargo container at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport. The outbreak was linked to two cargo handlers who cleaned a container that arrived from North America
Photo by Rodrigo Abreu on Unsplash
#Coronavirus thrives in cold, damp conditions like shipping containers
Coronavirus can maintain a longer vitality in dark and cold environments, especially in wet and cold shipping containers that have just landed, which will increase the risk of infection via unprotected contact, Zhang Wenhong, Shanghai-based infectious disease expert and leader of Shanghai COVID-19 control group said Thursday on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo.
Therefore, apart from the cold-chain logistics, Kashi in Xinjiang, Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia and Shanghai, three Chinese cities that reported confirmed COVID-19 cases recently, need to step up disinfection and sterilization on non-cold-chain logistics in the winter, Zhang said.
As the virus can be inactivated quickly in a warehouse with strong light and a dry environment, handling the products under these lighting conditions and in a space with good ventilation before transferring is also recommended to lower the risk of infection
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1208244.shtml
Photo by Bernd Dittrich on Unsplash
#Wuhan finds #coronavirus on packages of Brazilian beef, Vietnamese fish
Wuhan, capital of Central China’s Hubei Province, has launched an epidemiological investigation after the coronavirus was discovered on two packages of beef imported from Brazil and on one package of fish imported from Vietnam, local health authority announced on Saturday.
None of the products were distributed to the market, local authority noted.
The samples were discovered among imported Brazilian beef in a warehouse freezer in the Donghu New Area district and on imported Vietnamese bass in another warehouse freezer in the Jiang’an district, according to local authority.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1208311.shtml
Photo by Nigel Tadyanehondo on Unsplash
60 million confirmed #coronavirus infections globally, and the rate is still increasing
There have now been more than 60,000,000 confirmed coronavirus infections globally and the infection rate is still increasing.