After officials believed mail may be the source of recent coronavirus outbreaks, China’s postal service instructed workers to sanitize foreign delivery and advised the public to minimize orders from outside. Even while the rest of the globe has reopened, China, where the virus initially surfaced in late 2019, has maintained a rigorous goal of aiming for zero Covid-19 infections. Also, Covid-19 was allegedly imported – and maybe created – from frozen food from outside, according to Chinese officials and state-controlled media during the last year.
Subsequently, residents are asked to limit purchases from countries where Covid-19 is prevalent and keep a safe distance from couriers while accepting goods, as the authorities warn of increased transmission risks throughout the winter.
The decision comes as the center speculates that the first instance of the Omicron type in Beijing may have arrived by mail. According to the state-run People’s Daily, the infected man received mail from Canada on January 7 that had traveled through Canada and Hong Kong before landing in Beijing.
However, the country is now dealing with a number of tiny outbreaks, including one in Beijing, which is gearing up to host the Winter Olympics. Meanwhile, experts have often stated that spreading the coronavirus by mail poses a low risk. According to the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the risk of being sick through contaminated surfaces – known as fomite transmission – is low and decreasing. Although the Omicron form is more infectious, there is no sign that this has altered. Yet, the BBC’s China correspondent, Robin Brant, tweeted on Monday that Beijing was instructing citizens not to order products from outside the country and to open shipments outdoors with gloves and a mask on.
