(Fighting against New Coronary Pneumonia) From imported cold chain to international mail, the issue of "human-to-human transmission" of new coronavirus attracts attention

  China News Agency, Beijing, January 19 (Reporter Li Chun) The new crown pneumonia epidemic in mainland China is still showing a tendency to spread more recently.

Among them, the local epidemics in Beijing, Shenzhen, and Zhuhai have the possibility of "infection caused by express items", which once again aroused the attention of all parties to prevent the "human-to-human transmission" of the new coronavirus.

  From the isolation of live virus from the outer packaging of imported cold chain food, to the nucleic acid positive sample on the surface of the express package, to the international mail or the source of the local epidemic, the progress of the epidemic again and again is a reminder that the new coronavirus "human-to-human" needs continuous attention. , the relevant prevention and control measures should not be carelessly relaxed.

  On the 15th of this month, Beijing saw its first local confirmed case recently.

The case had received and received international mail several days earlier.

After sampling and testing, disease control personnel found that some of the outer and inner surfaces of the package of the mail and paper samples in the documents were positive for the new coronavirus nucleic acid.

  Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, pointed out at a press conference on the 17th that combined with the epidemiological history of the case, the test results of suspicious samples, and the genetic sequencing results of the case samples, the possibility of contracting the virus through foreign objects cannot be ruled out.

  According to the Beijing Shunyi District Center for Disease Control and Prevention on the 18th, in the same batch of the above-mentioned positive international mail, another document was detected as nucleic acid positive.

This further confirms that there is a possibility that foreign items may cause new coronavirus infection.

  Coincidentally, the viral genome of a recent local case in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province is 100% homologous to the genome of North America that has uploaded more sequences in the global database.

The case is engaged in the receipt and delivery of overseas frozen reagents, has contacted and split up express delivery from North America, and did not take personal protection. The possibility of infection caused by imported new coronavirus-contaminated items cannot be ruled out.

  In addition, Zhuhai, Guangdong also reported that according to the current on-site epidemiological investigation and laboratory testing, experts have judged that the current round of local epidemics cannot be ruled out due to exposure to contaminated imported goods.

  Cold chain transmission is one of the key links in the prevention of "human-to-human" transmission of the new coronavirus.

Many places in China have reported cases of the new coronavirus surviving under low temperature conditions for a long time and spreading along the cold chain. The transmission process is more secretive and the transmission cycle may be longer.

As the weather turns colder and the virus survives longer, some express items outside the cold chain have tested positive for nucleic acid on their inner and outer surfaces.

  Experts pointed out that three conditions must be met for infection caused by "human-to-human transmission", that is, items are heavily contaminated with viruses, the virus survives on surfaces for a long time, and personnel do not take appropriate protective measures when contacting contaminated items.

In addition, the secrecy of "human transmission" may be stronger.

Wu Zunyou, chief expert of epidemiology at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, believes that compared with "human-to-human transmission", "human-to-human transmission" has a different amount of virus, and asymptomatic infections or mild cases are prone to occur, which are often not detected in time, which may lead to new epidemic.

  For this reason, even in previous epidemics, "human-to-human transmission" was not the main way for the spread of the new coronavirus, but its transmission characteristics may cause hidden epidemics, which also need to be paid attention to and prevention and control measures should be taken.

China's epidemic prevention and control has always adhered to the prevention and control of people, materials and the environment, and made every effort to block the transmission channels of the virus.

  In response to the possible "human-to-human transmission", the Department of Safety Supervision and Administration of the State Post Bureau issued a notice on the 16th, requesting that the epidemic prevention and control barriers for international mail express should be effectively built to prevent overseas epidemics from being imported through delivery channels.

All enterprises should do a good job in disinfection and ventilation of international mail express processing places; for imported international mail express mail, after entering the production and processing link, the outer packaging should be fully covered and disinfected one by one as soon as possible.

  On the other hand, for ordinary people, how should we prevent the risk of epidemic spread in sending and receiving express delivery?

  At the previous press conference of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council of China, Zhang Liubo, chief expert of disinfection at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, pointed out that appropriate protection should be taken when receiving express delivery, such as wearing masks, gloves, and keeping a one-meter distance between personnel.

Do not bring the surface packaging of express delivery into the room. If you do, you can use disinfectant wipes to wipe and disinfect on six sides or spray disinfection.

Be sure to do good hand hygiene after handling the courier.

  At present, the new crown pneumonia epidemic is still spreading in many countries and places around the world. The mutant strain of Omikron spreads rapidly and has strong infectivity, and is rapidly replacing other mutant strains.

In addition, the risk of "human-to-human transmission" has not been eliminated, and cross-border "sea shopping" has increased the pressure of "foreign defense import".

Pang Xinghuo also reminded the public that during the period of high epidemics abroad, they should minimize the purchase of overseas goods.

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