COVID-19 Outbreak Caused by Contaminated Packaging of Imported Cold-Chain Products — Liaoning Province, China, July 2020

Ma, Huilai; Zhang, Jianqun; Wang, Ji; Qin, Ying; Chen, Cao; Song, Yang; Wang, Liang; Meng, Jun; Mao, Lingling; Li, Fengqin; Li, Ning; Cai, Jian; Zhang, Yong; Wang, Dayan; Xia, Yunting; Wang, Hong; Jiang, Shaofeng; Zhao, Xiang; Niu, Peihua; Tan, Wenjie; Ma, Tao; Yao, Yecheng; Mao, Naiying; Zhu, Zhen; Ji, Tianjiao; Yang, Qian; Huang, Baoying; Zhao, Li; Yu, Jianxing; Bai, Li; Zhu, Shuangli; Wang, Dongyan; Zhang, Yan; Sun, Yingwei; Luan, Mingchun; Wang, Yanhai; Sun, Haibo; Yang, Shihong; Bo, Zhijian; Ren, Xiang; Li, Zhongjie; Gao, George Fu; Yao, Wei; Yao, Wenqing; Feng, Zijian; Xu, Wenbo

What is known about this topic? Few major outbreaks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have occurred in China after major non-pharmaceutical interventions and vaccines have been deployed and implemented. However, sporadic outbreaks that had high possibility to be linked to cold chain products were reported in several cities of China.. What is added by this report? In July 2020, a COVID-19 outbreak occurred in Dalian, China. The investigations of this outbreak strongly suggested that the infection source was from COVID-19 virus-contaminated packaging of frozen seafood during inbound unloading personnel contact. What are the implications for public health practice? Virus contaminated paper surfaces could maintain infectivity for at least 17–24 days at -25 ℃. Exposure to COVID-19 virus-contaminated surfaces is a potential route for introducing the virus to a susceptible population. Countries with no domestic transmission of COVID-19 should consider introducing prevention strategies for both inbound travellers and imported goods. Several measures to prevent the introduction of the virus via cold-chain goods can be implemented.