(Xinhua/Yang Qing)

Public advised to disinfect mail, receive fewer parcels from abroad

Macau authorities have appealed to the public to receive fewer parcels in the mail, after China-linked recent cases of Covid-19 to packages that arrived from abroad.

“The Contingency Coordination Centre warns citizens to reduce and handle with care, products purchased by mail,” the Macau health authorities appealed in a statement.

The reason for the warning, according to the territory’s authorities, is due to information “about screening the origin of positive cases of Covid-19 inside China,” which, “after nucleic acid testing, reveals that environmental samples were tested on international mail with which the confirmed cases also had contact, and the Omicron strain was detected.

Beijing reported the first locally transmitted Omicron case on Saturday and the Chinese municipal health commission says the source of the infection may have been through a package from Canada, which passed through the United States and Hong Kong before reaching the Chinese capital.

Beijing has also advised the public to minimise the purchase of goods from abroad.

Canadian government health experts and advisors have already reacted to these allegations, deeming them highly unlikely.

“It would have to have virus on an object, it would have to survive through all that transportation and all those circumstances,” meaning “it would be highly unlikely that this could ever transmit Covid-19,” Supriya Sharma, a chief medical advisor to Health Canada, told CTV News Channel.

Also, the deputy director of public health at the Public Health Agency of Canada has already come out to deny these claims: “I think we know where the science is in terms of the main mode of transmission,” said Howard Njoo.

In Zhuhai, a Chinese city adjacent to Macau, two new local cases were diagnosed and confirmed on Monday, making a total of 14 cases in recent days.

As in Beijing, Zhuhai health authorities also said that “based on the current on-site epidemiological investigation and laboratory tests, experts conclude that exposure to contaminated items from abroad cannot be ruled out as the cause of this outbreak.”

Cases in mainland China, though low, are on the rise, with local outbreaks recorded across the country, just days before the celebration of the lunar year with family in the largest internal migration on the planet and the start of the Winter Olympics on February 4.

The increase in the number of cases in neighbouring regions and the identification of Omicron cases detected during the long quarantines imposed in Macau have prompted the Macau authorities to raise the alarm and to say that an “outbreak of Covid-19 is likely” in the territory.

A fortnight ago, after an outbreak was reported in Hong Kong, Macau banned flights from outside China from landing in the territory at a time when many people, including Portuguese nationals, were returning from the Christmas holidays.

That ban is in place until 23 January. However, the authorities have already said that the measure may be extended.