China: "Beijing Infection Virus Is European Type"…EU: "No Evidence"

[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Park Sun-mi] Chinese health authorities are strongly pushing the claim that the COVID-19 virus spreading in Beijing came from Europe. On the other hand, European health authorities argue that it is premature to conclude where the virus spreading in Beijing originated based solely on the current investigation.

According to the Chinese state-run Global Times on the 19th, Jiang Yong, deputy director of the Virus Management and Prevention Research Institute at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, stated that the COVID-19 cluster infection at Beijing's largest agricultural and aquatic products market, Xinfadi Market, was caused by a virus from Europe. He said that after securing a large number of samples from Xinfadi Market, they reached this conclusion, asserting that while the virus did come from Europe, it differs from the virus currently spreading in Europe and is temporally an older strain.

He explained, "The large amount of virus detected at Xinfadi Market means the virus had been present there for some time. If the virus had entered Xinfadi Market in a short period, such a large amount of virus would not have been found." He added, "The virus may have been on imported frozen food and remained on the food due to the frozen environment during transportation to China. It could have been dormant in a dark and humid environment and later exposed to local residents, leading to transmission."

Wu Junyu, chief epidemiologist at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, also claimed, "The genetic information of the virus found at Xinfadi Market is more similar to the European variant than to the one found in Beijing 2-3 months ago."

However, in Europe, there is a position that there is insufficient evidence to claim that the COVID-19 virus spreading in Beijing directly came from Europe.

According to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP), Giovanni Mancarella, spokesperson for the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), said, "More information is needed to identify the origin of the cluster infection in Beijing," and "Without additional epidemiological data, it is impossible to determine from the current genetic information alone whether this virus directly came from Europe or is another variant." He explained, "COVID-19 is a constantly mutating virus," adding, "It is not surprising that the virus found in China is similar to the European one. The virus called the European type could have emerged during its entry into Europe."

Meanwhile, on the same day, the Chinese National Health Commission (NHC) announced that as of midnight, 25 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were added in Beijing. The confirmed cases related to Beijing's Xinfadi Market started with 1 case on the 11th, followed by 6 on the 12th, 36 on the 13th, 36 on the 14th, 27 on the 15th, 31 on the 16th, 21 on the 17th, and 25 on the 18th, totaling 183 cases. Considering that 2 additional asymptomatic infections, which are not included in the confirmed case statistics, were added in one day, bringing the total to 15, the total number of COVID-19 infections in Beijing approached 200 at 198 cases.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.