Chinese authorities say they found virus in imported beef and seafood

Chinese authorities said today that they found detected coronavirus in imported beef and seafood.

Watch:

China’s Centre for Disease Control and customs officials claimed that exterior packages and inside containers had the virus. The authorities on Tuesday had moved swiftly to ban frozen shrimp from an Ecuadorian company.

Also Read: Shanghai tackles coronavirus outbreak, hundreds of flights cancelled

China had earlier linked a local COVID-19 outbreak to a wholesale food market outside Beijing. Chinese health officials had earlier targeted two cold-chain storage workers in Tianjin for being infected with coronavirus.

China has undertaken mass-testing campaigns after reports of coronavirus traces on imported food and packaging. Authorities had said earlier reportedly detected the virus on frozen beef from Brazil.

The latest development comes as China's meat imports have increased over 70 per cent this year. However, the World Health Organization said that "there is currently no evidence that people can catch COVID-19 from food or food packaging". 

China earlier claimed that the initial source of coronavirus outbreak was possibly from outside however it was disputed by several countries including the US and Australia even as the WHO has started investigation on the origin of the virus in China.

The Chinese foreign ministry had earlier floated a conspiracy theory that the American military may have brought the virus to Wuhan.