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Review
. 2022 Mar 1;2(1):50-65.
doi: 10.1515/mr-2021-0019. eCollection 2022 Feb 1.

Cold chain and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 transmission: a review for challenges and coping strategies

Jiangtao Liu  1 , Tongzhang Zheng  2 , Wei Xia  1 , Shunqing Xu  1 , Yuanyuan Li  1
Affiliations
Review

Cold chain and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 transmission: a review for challenges and coping strategies

Jiangtao Liu et al. Med Rev (2021). .

Abstract

Since June 2020, the re-emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemics in parts of China was linked to the cold chain, which attracted extensive attention and heated discussions from the public. According to the typical characteristics of these epidemics, we speculated a possible route of transmission from cold chain to human. A series of factors in the supply chain contributed to the epidemics if the cold chain were contaminated by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), such as temperature, humidity, personal hygiene/protection, and disinfection. The workers who worked in the cold chain at the receiving end faced a higher risk of being infected when they were not well protected. Facing the difficult situation, China put forward targeted and powerful countermeasures to block the cold chain-related risk. However, in the context of the unstable pandemic situation globally, the risk of the cold chain needs to be recognized and evaluated seriously. Hence, in this review, we reviewed the cold chain-related epidemics in China, analyzed the possible mechanisms, introduced the Chinese experience, and suggested coping strategies for the global epidemic prevention and control.

Keywords: cold chain; coronavirus disease 2019; prevention and control; severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: Authors state no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Locally transmitted epidemic development of Beijing Municipality, China in 2020.
Figure 2:
Figure 2:
Locally transmitted epidemic development of Dalian, Liaoning Province, China in 2020. The figures only present confirmed cases. (A) The first round in July, 2020; (B) The second round in December, 2020.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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