A second wave of coronavirus has hit Chinas capital city Beijing and imported salmon is being blamed prompting a national ban on the fish.

Salmon has beentakenoff theshelvesin major supermarkets likeWalmart Inc.and deleted from grocery delivery platforms across China, while top experts are warning people not to consume the omega-3 rich fish. Provinces and cities from Yunnan to Shanghai are testing the seafood at local wet markets for the virus.

The backlash came after the chairman of a major fruit and vegetable market called Xinfadi, the site of over 100 newly-detected infections in Beijing, said that the virus was traced to the chopping board used by a seller of imported salmon.

While it is unclear if the virus can be actually be transmitted through frozen food thats later thawed, the fervor has put a $700 million market for imported salmon at risk, dealing a blow to major exporters like Denmark, Norway, and Australia.

The swift shunning of salmon reflects Chinas growing fears over the abrupt resurgence of cases in its capital city the cultural and political center of the country where 20 million people reside.

Over 20 housing compounds have been placed under lockdown and some schools closed while local officials race to track down people whove visited or had contact with the Xinfadi market.

Chinese authorities have contacted Norway seeking information about infection risk connected to the production of fresh salmon and the Scandinavian country aims to reply as quickly as possible to limit the impact on the industry, Norwegian Fisheries Minister Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen said in astatementon the governments website Tuesday.

We have yet to find out whether human beings transmitted the virus to salmon, or salmon contracted the virus first, said Zeng Guang, a senior expert with the National Health Commission, in aninterviewwith state media on Sunday.

He warned Beijing residents not to eat raw salmon or purchase imported seafood for the time being.

Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist of Chinas Center for Diseases Prevention and Controlsaidon Sunday that the virus can survive on the surface of frozen food forup tothree months and that the agency highly suspects contaminated goods as the source of the latest outbreak.

The salmon boycott is another setback for exporters of the seafood to China after the coronavirus pandemic caused sales in the first four months of the year to plunge over 30%.

Prior to the crisis, the four biggest exporters according to China customs data Chile, Norway, Australia, and Denmarks Faroe Islands had seen demand steadily grow to $686 million last year due to rising middle-class incomes and a shift to healthier diets.

The situation drove stocks of pork producers up on Monday, with Jiangxi Zhengbang Technology Co. jumping as much as 8.6% and Wens Foodstuffs Group Co. climbing as much as 4.7%.

The gains were likely fueled by expectations that demand for the meat will rise as consumers shun seafood, said Ken Chen, an analyst with KGI Securities Co. in Shanghai.

Local authorities across China are heightening their scrutiny of wet markets and the seafood sold there.

In provinces likeYunnan, Hubei, and Shandong, fresh seafood and equipment like chopping boards and knives are beingtestedfor the virus. Wet market workers are also being screened.

In astudypublished in April, researchers with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concluded that the coronavirus is not known to infect aquatic food animals or contaminate their products.

The risk should be negligible with proper food handling and sanitation, although their surfaces might potentially become contaminated when handled by people who carry the virus, scientists including Melba G. Bondad-Reantaso wrote.

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Salmon Causing Second Wave Of COVID-19 - Vegan News