Doctors say claim that China's 1st Omicron case came from Canada isn't based on science

Doctors say an allegation out of Beijing that China's first Omicron case may be linked to mail received from Toronto should be treated with deep skepticism.

Chinese health authorities said earlier Monday that a case of Omicron in Beijing may have spread from a package received from Canada. They urged citizens to stop ordering parcels from abroad as the opening of the Winter Olympics approaches.

"I find this to be, let's say, an extraordinary view," Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told a news conference Monday.

"Certainly [it's] not in accordance with what we have done both internationally and domestically."

Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, said health officials "cannot rule out the possibility" that the patient was infected by goods from overseas carrying the virus.

The centre claims the package in question was routed through the U.S. before arriving in Hong Kong and then its final destination in Beijing.

But medical experts say the theory that such a shipment could spread the virus contradicts what recent studies say about COVID-19's ability to survive on surfaces.

"I don't think any of that's based on science," said Dr. Anna Banerji, an associate professor of pediatrics and infectious disease at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

She said the airborne Omicron variant "would never survive" on an envelope shipped across the world.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say studies show an "inability to detect viable virus within minutes to hours" on porous surfaces, like paper.

An April 2020 study published in The Lancet journal concluded that "no infectious virus could be recovered from printing and tissue papers after a three-hour incubation."

Epidemiologist Dr. Donald Vinh, a professor with McGill University's division of experimental medicine, said the chance of such a package actually infecting someone is "very, very low."

"Is it believable or likely or probable that this has happened? And the answer is no," he said.

China's claim comes as it tries to clamp down on cases ahead of the Winter Games, set to open in Beijing on Feb. 4.