China eyes ‘pig head’

TWO of China’s new COVID-19 cases have been linked to “pig heads” that arrived from North America, with the country battling a fresh cluster of infections.

China recorded 22 new coronavirus cases on Monday, a significant jump from the 11 cases reported the previous day.

The country’s National Health Commission said 20 of the new cases were imported infections and two cases, one in Tianjin and

Shanghai, were locally acquired.

An official at the Tianjin Center For Disease Control and Prevention, Zhang Ying, revealed this week that two confirmed infections detected in Tianjin earlier this month had been linked to pig heads imported from North America.

While officials had not yet tested the pig heads, Mr Zhang said samples taken from where the heads had fallen while being moved tested positive for

COVID-19. The tests revealed it was the same strain of the disease detected in the two cases that had come into contact with the heads.

It comes as the outbreak in Shanghai was traced back to two airport cargo handlers who tested positive to the virus earlier this month after cleaning out a shipping container that had arrived from North America.

The cases were detected on November 9 and 10, with the

Shanghai Daily reporting both workers cleaned the container together on October 30.

“Research at home and abroad has shown coronavirus could live in enclosed, damp environments. The timing of their infection matched the incubation period of the disease,” Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention deputy director Sun Xiaodong said.

It is understood neither of the workers were wearing masks while cleaning the container.

Multiple cases have now been linked to the airport, with seven cases reported this month.

The outbreak has caused hundreds of flights to be cancelled, with officials rushing to test thousands of staff at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport.

By Monday morning more than 17,700 people had been swabbed as part of the testing blitz.

Videos shared on Sunday night