PUTRAJAYA: The spread of the Covid-19 virus via frozen food packaging, reportedly the cause of a new cluster in China's Shandong province, is a remote occurrence.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said Covid-19 infection is usually contracted through droplets between close contacts or direct exposure to a contaminated surface.
"It is highly unlikely that one can contract the virus via food or food packaging.
"Covid-19 is a respiratory infection which basically attacks the lung before other organs," he said, answering a question on the possibility of contaminated frozen food packages arriving from China.
Dr Noor Hisham said the root cause of transmission is via droplets when in close contact or when in direct contact.
"However, at the moment there is no scientific evidence that Covid-19 can spread via food or food packaging," he said.
The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently said it found active Covid-19 virus on the outer component of refrigerated food packaging in the Shandong province.
The report said tests on product packaging from various countries also found positive cases of the virus, without specifying the origin of the product.
China has banned imported products, including seafood, from Indonesia and chicken wings from Brazil following allegedly positive tests on shipping containers and food packaging.
