Having had Covid-19? You should probably clear out your freezer. The SARS-CoV-2 virus’ relatives can survive for up to 30 days on frozen fish and pig, according to a new study. As a result of Covid-19 outbreaks in Asia, research was conducted on frozen chicken, beef, pigs, and salmon. Packaged meat was thought to be the source of the virus. The study’s findings were published on June 11 in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology of the American Society for Microbiology.
The researchers kept the meat and fish products in the freezer and under refrigeration (4 degrees Celsius) (minus 20 degrees C).
According to research lead author Emily S. Bailey, an assistant professor at Campbell University in the US, ‘you might not preserve meat in the fridge for 30 days, but you might store it in the freezer for that long.’
‘We even found that the viruses could be cultured after (being frozen for) that length of time,’ Bailey said in a statement.
After discovering that COVID-19 outbreaks were occurring in Southeast Asia prior to community transmission, the researchers made the decision to carry out the investigation.
Because SARS-CoV-2 can multiply not just in the respiratory system but also in the stomach, Bailey claims that the study is essential. In the study, surrogates included murine hepatitis virus, two animal coronaviruses, one RNA virus with a lipid envelop, and transmissible gastroenteritis virus. All three viruses have served as SARS-CoV-2 substitutes in the past, and refrigeration temperatures frequently cause greater declines in their populations than freezing temperatures. Depending on the food used, the population declined in various ways.
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