Big clue! Suspected US seafood received before the outbreak in South China Seafood Market
In mid November 2019, a batch of seafood from Maine was transported to Wuhan south China seafood market through the cold chain. Within a few weeks novel coronavirus pneumonia was found among many business people in Southern China seafood market.
Entry
At 4:4 a.m. on November 11, 2019, China Eastern Airlines flight mu298 landed at Shanghai Pudong International Airport.
A batch of American cold chain goods on board were unloaded from the cabin of the North cargo terminal of the airport and transported to the international cargo arrival area for customs entry. Among them, there are 55 boxes of 823.4 kilograms of frozen Boston lobster.
The goods arrived quickly because of air transportation. Only three days have passed since Wang, an employee of X company, placed the order on the fresh cross-border trading platform. But they have to act quickly and send the goods to Shanghai, Hubei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Henan and other places. 26 customers ordered this batch of lobsters, with a total value of 16483.5 US dollars.
Before delivery, they will unpack and inspect the goods as usual, and then seal them with the original packaging, ice bags and water and temperature control sponges and send them to local subscribers.
Zheng is also one of the subscribers of this batch of lobsters. He is the boss of merchant a in Wuhan south China seafood market. On November 11 and 12, 2019, he ordered 140.08 kg of lobster on the network platform of company X. In recent years, Zheng has a group of fixed hotel customers. He also provides aquatic products to other merchants in South China seafood market.
I'm afraid it was this batch of American lobsters that opened the Pandora's box of the epidemic in the seafood market in South China.
Spread
Everything looks normal.
At 10:00 a.m. on November 11, 2019, at Shanghai Pudong International Airport, the driver Yan loaded 55 boxes of American lobsters and transported them to Shanghai Branch of X company; At 17:00 p.m. on the 11th and 12th, the Shanghai Branch of X company sent 35.39 kg and 104.69 kg lobsters to Wuhan south China seafood market twice; At 4:40 a.m. on the 12th and 7 a.m. on the 13th, Zheng waited for his goods by the northwest road of the market.
According to the sales records of merchant a, more than 80 kilograms of 140.08 kilograms of American lobster were sold to three fixed Hotel merchants, and 36 kilograms were resold to other merchants in South China seafood market, of which 0.85 kilograms were sold to Wen, the boss of merchant B, and the rest were retailed.
3 of the first novel coronavirus pneumonia patients in Wuhan were B business people who were all infected in December. The merchant also collected one environmental positive sample on the ground.
Moreover, the employees of merchants C and D in South China seafood market, Ming, Cai, Xu and Hu, also appeared in the list of the first infected people in Wuhan after borrowing the packaging of American cold chain products purchased by merchant a.
It can be seen more clearly from the booth map around merchant a. There are many infected persons and environmental positive samples in its surrounding merchants. Among the 13 nearby merchants and employees, 7 merchants were found to have positive serum antibodies, and one merchant also detected environmental positive samples.
Whether the early epidemic situation in South China seafood market was imported through this batch of American seafood cold chain has become the biggest doubt. The epidemic tracing results of Xinfadi in Beijing in June, Dalian in Liaoning in July and Qingdao in Shandong in October 2020 all point to imported cold chain products. Therefore, it is entirely possible for the virus to attach to the cold chain packaging of these seafood products in the United States and enter the seafood market in South China.
This possibility was also supported by China's who COVID-19 traceability joint research report released in March this year. The study notes that "COVID-19 has been able to survive for a long time under conditions of frozen food, packaging and cold chain products." the recent cases in China are related to cold chain. The virus is packaged and produced in other countries that provide cold chain products to China, indicating that it can be transmitted over a long distance by cold chain products.
Source of disease
According to the sales, logistics and customs declaration records, from October to November 2019 before the outbreak of the epidemic in South China seafood market, merchant a was the only merchant in the whole market that operated American cold chain products. Moreover, in mid November, merchant a purchased this batch of American lobsters, and has not purchased American cold chain products since then.
Novel coronavirus pneumonia cases were found in novel coronavirus pneumonia cases in Wuhan after December 2019. A group of American seafood entered the seafood market in Southern China for about a month. This is just a week of new crown pneumonia from infection to latent disease. The first time is the first time in December 2019.
The batch of American lobsters ordered by company X's network platform are packaged by American Seashell company. Founded in 2011, the company is a wholesaler specializing in purchasing fresh North Atlantic lobster from the United States and Canada. The lobsters that entered China were caught by the company from fao21 in the Atlantic Ocean from October 20 to November 5, 2019, and then transported to the factory of Haibei company for temporary breeding. After Chinese customers place orders, they are transported to China through the cold chain.