WHO teams visits Wuhan foods market place in research of virus clues

WUHAN, China — A Earth Health and fitness Group team seeking into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic on Sunday frequented the foodstuff current market in the Chinese town of Wuhan that was connected to many early infections.

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The staff customers frequented the Huanan Seafood Market place for about an hour in the afternoon, and one of them flashed a thumbs up sign when reporters questioned how the trip was heading.

The current market was the site of a December 2019 outbreak of the virus. Researchers to begin with suspected the virus arrived from wild animals marketed in the sector. The current market has considering that been largely dominated out but it could present hints to how the virus spread so greatly.

“Very critical site visits right now — a wholesale sector very first & Huanan Seafood Industry just now,” Peter Daszak, a zoologist with the U.S. group EcoHealth Alliance and a member of the WHO crew, reported in a tweet. “Very instructive & essential for our joint teams to fully grasp the epidemiology of COVID as it began to spread at the stop of 2019.”

Previously in the working day, the staff users have been also found strolling by means of sections of the Baishazhou market place — 1 of the greatest wet markets in Wuhan — surrounded by a large entourage of Chinese officers and representatives. The current market was the food items distribution centre for Wuhan for the duration of the city’s 76-day lockdown last year.

The associates, with experience in veterinary drugs, virology, foods security and epidemiology, have so considerably frequented two hospitals at the centre of the early outbreak — Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital and the Hubei Integrated Chinese and Western Drugs Hospital.

On Saturday, they also frequented a museum exhibition dedicated to the early history of COVID-19.

The mission has turn out to be politically billed, as China seeks to avoid blame for alleged missteps in its early response to the outbreak.

A single check out by scientists is unlikely to confirm the virus’s origins. Pinning down an outbreak’s animal reservoir is ordinarily an exhaustive endeavour that can take yrs of investigate such as having animal samples, genetic assessment and epidemiological reports.

One particular likelihood is that a wildlife poacher could have handed the virus to traders who carried it to Wuhan. The Chinese governing administration has promoted theories, with tiny proof, that the outbreak could have began with imports of frozen seafood tainted with the virus, a idea roundly turned down by worldwide experts and agencies.

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Soo noted from Hong Kong.

Emily Wang Fujiyama And Zen Soo, The Linked Press