Survey of COVID-19 outbreaks linked to imported frozen food in China’s Mainland

Abstract

ObjectiveSince the global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 （COVID-19） broken， a series of local outbreaks caused by the contamination of imported cold chain food by SARS-CoV-2 had been reported in China’s Mainland. To provide corresponding suggestions for the prevention and control of similar epidemics in the future， the characteristics and spread of such epidemics was analyzed.MethodsAll the literature， official news reports and other materials on the local COVID-19 outbreak caused by SARS-CoV-2 contaminated imported cold chain food was collected， and the corresponding data was sort out and analyzed.ResultsFrom June 2020 to November 2022， a total of 20 local COVID-19 outbreaks related to imported cold chain products were reported， with a total of 1 646 cases， involving 9 provinces. Among the 20 outbreaks， there were 10 outbreaks in 2020， 3 outbreaks in 2021， and seven outbreaks in 2022， and 3 outbreaks had 200 or more cases.ConclusionSince the global pandemic of COVID-19 broken， the 20 local outbreaks related to imported cold-chain food traced domestically were caused by cold-chain workers who were infected by contact with imported cold-chain food or their overpacks， and most of local outbreaks （75%） caused subsequent community transmission. But under various effective control measures such as the construction of centralized supervision warehouses in China， the number and duration of local outbreaks related to imported cold chain food have shown a downward trend.

Keywords

• severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
• imported cold chain foods
• centralized supervision warehouses