Supports· strongCOV-E004
Chinese CDC surveillance: 923 environmental samples, 74 positive, 87.5 percent of interior positives in the west zone
- what the source states
- "From 1 January 2020, after closure of the market, 923 samples were collected from the environment. From 18 January, 457 samples were collected from 18 species of animal … SARS-CoV-2 was detected in 74 (70 RT-qPCR and 4 Bowtie2) environmental samples, but none of the animal samples." On distribution: "Of the 64 SARS-CoV-2-positive samples collected inside the HSM, 87.5% (56/64) were collected in the West Zone of the market." On the sampling window: "The market was closed in the morning of 1 January 2020 … On the same day, in the early morning, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention … dispatched an epidemiological team." And on what was done to the site: "the outside surface of the rolling shutter doors of the stalls and the corridors were disinfected … throughout January and February 2020. The goods inside the stalls were completely cleared and disinfected until early March 2020."
- what we infer
- The custodian's own data independently corroborates the western-section concentration found by outside analysis, which is the strongest form of that finding. The same paper bounds what the sampling could show: the market was empty and being disinfected throughout the collection period.
- limitations
- Cite the 2024 version of record: the positive count was 73 in the 2023 accelerated preview and 74 after a note added in proof explaining the difference.
- The paper's abstract dates animal sampling from 18 January while its Results describe both sample sets as collected from 1 January; the discrepancy is noted rather than resolved.
- Produced by the custodian whose data-sharing is itself in dispute.