Omicron variant may have entered Beijing via mail

Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the city's first COVID-19 patient diagnosed with the Omicron variant received a document sent from Canada on January 7, according to the South China Morning Post.

“We cannot rule out the possibility that the person was infected with Omicron through contact with overseas mail,” Pang said at a press conference on January 17, adding that health authorities were investigating the source of the case, knowing that the person occasionally received overseas mail.

Officials found the Omicron variant in a document that had been shipped from Canada through the United States and Hong Kong before arriving in China on January 11. The patient had contact with only the outer packaging of the package and the first page of the document inside. Tests of 22 samples related to the package showed that the Omicron variant was detected in two samples of the outer surface of the package, two samples of the inner surface of the package, and eight samples of the inner paper.

Officials also said the Omicron strain that the patient in Beijing contracted was similar to strains recorded in North America and the island nation of Singapore in December 2021.

Liao Lingzhu, deputy director of the Beijing Postal Service, revealed that the express document had been sent from the Canadian capital Toronto airport. All staff who handled the package have been quarantined. Eight people who came into contact with the package have tested negative. Authorities also revealed that they found traces of the virus on five other packages out of 54 sent from the same location to another address in China.

Pang said the Beijing patient had not left the city for 14 days before developing a sore throat on January 13, followed by a fever a day later. Tests from January 14 confirmed the patient was in the early stages of the disease.

Officials also said they found no evidence that the patient had come into contact with high-risk groups, such as people arriving from abroad, affected areas of the country, or other positive cases and their close contacts. They also ruled out the possibility that the patient may have contracted the virus through frozen food.

Following this community Omicron infection, the Beijing CDC advised residents to minimize purchases of goods from overseas and to wear masks and gloves when opening packages from high-risk countries. Authorities also warned residents to open packages outside their homes and disinfect them thoroughly.

Chinese officials have repeatedly claimed to have detected SARS-CoV-2 in imported goods, often frozen, but some researchers and health authorities abroad have questioned this transmission route, arguing that the virus could not survive long enough on such surfaces.

The Public Health Agency of Canada has echoed this view, saying there is no evidence of COVID-19 being transmitted through imported goods or shipments. In a Q&A on its website, Canada Post cites assurances from the country’s public health agency and the World Health Organization that the risk of contracting the virus from mail, including international mail, is low.

“Because the survival of SARS-CoV-2 on these surfaces is very poor, the risk of the virus spreading from products or packaging transported over a period of days or weeks is very low,” the agency stated./.