A sample taken from the surface of frozen chicken wings imported from Brazil into the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen has tested positive for coronavirus, officials in China said Thursday.
Health authorities said they tested everyone who might have come into contact with the products and so far no one has tested positive. The city's notice said all related products were sealed off and tested negative as well.
A day earlier, Chinese authorities reported they found coronavirus from a sample of the packaging of frozen shrimp imported into northwest China from Ecuador, according to the South China Morning Post.
The testing was part of routine screenings on meat and seafood imports that has been underway since June in China, Reuters reported.
A respiratory medicine expert told CNN that the chicken wings that tested positive in China were almost certain to have been contaminated during the packaging process.
Health authorities, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, have said the chances of getting coronavirus from food or food packaging is very low.
The CDC has said that "there is no evidence to suggest that handling food or consuming food is associated with COVID-19." The WHO has said it is "highly unlikely that people can contract COVID-19 from food or food packaging."
Both organizations have repeatedly stressed that COVID-19 is a respiratory illness and it's believed that the primary transmission route is through person-to-person contact and through respiratory droplets created when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
