China media say foreign parcels suspected in new infections

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese state media report parcels mailed from overseas may have spread the omicron variant of the coronavirus in Beijing and elsewhere. Globally, health experts have stressed the virus mainly spreads through respiratory droplets when infected people breathe, speak, cough and sneeze. However, China has repeatedly emphasized the danger of infection from packaging and has boosted testing of frozen food and regular items shipped from overseas. The Communist Party newspaper Global Times cited the Beijing Center for Disease Control and virologists as making the link between the latest infections and packages. The report said investigators found people newly infected had picked up packages mailed from Canada and the U.S.