Chinese state media report parcels mailed from overseas may have spread the omicron variant in Beijing and elsewhere. Globally, health experts have said the virus mainly spreads through respiratory droplets when infected people breathe, cough and sneeze.
Workers and residents stand near a nuclei test station in Beijing, China, Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022. The first reported case of the omicron variant has prompted stepped-up measures in Beijing, just weeks before it hosts the Winter Olympic Games.
BEIJING — Chinese state media report parcels mailed from overseas may have spread the omicron variant of the coronavirus in Beijing and elsewhere. Globally, health experts have stressed the virus mainly spreads through respiratory droplets when infected people breathe, speak, cough and sneeze. However, China has repeatedly emphasized the danger of infection from packaging, despite only trace amounts of the virus being found on such items, and it has boosted testing of frozen food and regular items shipped from overseas.
The Communist Party newspaper Global Times cited the Beijing Center for Disease Control and virologists as making the link between the latest infections and packages from abroad. The report Tuesday said investigators found people newly infected had picked up packages mailed from Canada and the U.S. China has locked down parts of Beijing’s Haidian district following the detection of three cases, just weeks before the Chinese capital is due to host the Winter Olympic Games. Another person in the southern technology hub of Shenzhen who tested positive for omicron had handled packages sent from North America.
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