WHO teams visits Wuhan foodstuff marketplace in search of virus clues

WUHAN, China — A Earth Health and fitness Organization workforce hunting into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic on Sunday visited the meals current market in the Chinese town of Wuhan that was linked to several early infections.

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The group users visited the Huanan Seafood Sector for about an hour in the afternoon, and just one of them flashed a thumbs up signal when reporters requested how the vacation was likely.

The market was the web site of a December 2019 outbreak of the virus. Scientists to begin with suspected the virus came from wild animals marketed in the current market. The marketplace has given that been mostly dominated out but it could give hints to how the virus spread so commonly.

“Very important internet site visits these days — a wholesale current market very first & Huanan Seafood Current market just now,” Peter Daszak, a zoologist with the U.S. team EcoHealth Alliance and a member of the WHO staff, said in a tweet. “Very useful & important for our joint groups to comprehend the epidemiology of COVID as it began to unfold at the end of 2019.”

Before in the day, the group members ended up also noticed strolling by sections of the Baishazhou market — one particular of the premier moist markets in Wuhan — surrounded by a huge entourage of Chinese officials and associates. The sector was the foodstuff distribution centre for Wuhan for the duration of the city’s 76-day lockdown last year.

The users, with expertise in veterinary drugs, virology, foods safety and epidemiology, have so far frequented two hospitals at the centre of the early outbreak — Wuhan Jinyintan Medical center and the Hubei Built-in Chinese and Western Drugs Hospital.

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

The mission has turn into politically charged, as China seeks to stay clear of blame for alleged missteps in its early response to the outbreak.

A one visit by scientists is not likely to ensure the virus’s origins. Pinning down an outbreak’s animal reservoir is normally an exhaustive endeavour that normally takes decades of analysis which include getting animal samples, genetic examination and epidemiological scientific tests.

One risk is that a wildlife poacher may possibly have passed the virus to traders who carried it to Wuhan. The Chinese governing administration has promoted theories, with very little evidence, that the outbreak may possibly have started out with imports of frozen seafood tainted with the virus, a idea roundly rejected by intercontinental scientists and agencies.

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Soo claimed from Hong Kong.

Emily Wang Fujiyama And Zen Soo, The Involved Press