‘No evidence’ of coronavirus latching onto food packaging, WHO says

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday (August 13) downplayed the danger of the coronavirus latching on to food packaging and urged people not to be afraid of the virus entering the food chain.

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Two cities in China said they had found traces of the coronavirus in imported frozen food and on food packaging, raising fears that contaminated food shipments might cause new outbreaks.

“People should not fear food, or food packaging or processing or delivery of food,” WHO head of emergencies program Mike Ryan told a briefing in Geneva. “There is no evidence that food or the food chain is participating in transmission of this virus. And people should feel comfortable and safe.”

WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the world needs to spend at least $100 billion on new tools to address the coronavirus pandemic.

More than 20.69 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and almost 750,000 have died, according to a Reuters tally.

Ryan said that the key to fighting the coronavirus is stopping clusters spreading into community transmission.

A very small percentage of the world population has had the virus already and it has a “long way to burn” if allowed, he said.

The WHO does not have enough information to make a judgement on the expanded use of the new Russian vaccine, Bruce Aylward, WHO senior adviser, said at the briefing in Geneva.

Russia on Tuesday (August 11) became the world’s first country to grant regulatory approval for a COVID-19 vaccine, to be named “Sputnik V” in homage to the Soviet Union’s launch of the world’s first satellite

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