By NewsDesk  @infectiousdiseasenews

On Saturday, the Beijing Municipal Health Commission reported an additional 22 newly confirmed local COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 227 since June 11.

Beijing
Image/Robert Herriman

Nine fatalities have been reported.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday, June 19 that they officially released the viral genome sequence data for the Beijing Xinfadi wholesale market in June 2020 through the “New Coronavirus National Science and Technology Resource Service System”.

CDC submitted the genomic data to the World Health Organization and the Global Influenza Data Initiate for sharing with the international community.

Lastly, Zhang Yong, assistant director of the Institute of Viral Diseases said of the genomic epidemiology– “From the preliminary results of genomic epidemiology, this virus came from Europe, but it is different from the virus that is currently circulating in Europe. It is older than the virus that is currently circulating in Europe.”

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As for how the virus comes in of? Zhang Yong analyzed: “This involves several possibilities. For example, the virus is lurking in the imported frozen food. During the entire storage and transportation period from abroad to the territory, the virus has not evolved because it has been frozen, so it No mutation will occur; it is also possible that the virus is lurking in a dark and humid environment such as Xinfadi agricultural wholesale market, without being disinfected or sterilized, and suddenly exposed to infected people within a certain period of time, resulting in slower evolution. The result is that these strains are closer to the old European viruses.”

How was an old virus circulating in Europe brought to Beijing’s Xinfadi agricultural wholesale market? Scientists are still unremittingly exploring day and night.