A World Health Organization team investigating the roots of the coronavirus visited the Chinese food market that was previously linked to many early infections.
Health workers spent about an hour at Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan on Sunday.
Scientists who suspected animals sold on the market were linked to the December 2019 outbreak there. That theory has been largely dismissed, but WHO officials say the site can provide clues as to how the deadly virus spread so quickly.
“Very important site visits today – an unprecedented wholesale market and the Huanan Seafood Market right now,” Peter Daszak, a zoologist for the North American group EcoHealth Alliance and a member of the WHO team, tweeted. “Very informative and critical for our joint teams to understand the epidemiology of COVID, as it started to spread in late 2019.”
Before visiting the Huanan Seafood Market, team members were accompanied by a large entourage of Chinese officials for a tour of Baishazhou Market – one of the largest food outlets in the industrial city, which was a distribution center during its food block. 76 days.
The visit was politically charged, as Communist Party leaders seek to avoid blame for errors in the country’s initial response to the outbreak. China had already blocked scientists’ planned entry into the market. He reversed the decision earlier this month after WHO leaders accused the country of hampering the investigation.
The international team of experts in veterinary medicine, virology, food safety and epidemiology also visited two hospitals at the center of the initial outbreak and a museum exhibition on the early history of COVID-19.
A WHO staff member gave a thumbs-up to a reporter who asked about the success of the trips.
However, it is unlikely that a single visit from the team will generate responses. Typically, years of research involving animal samples, genetic analysis and epidemiological studies are needed to determine the origins of an outbreak.
Chinese authorities have launched an unconfirmed theory that the outbreak started with imported frozen seafood, but a more viable possibility is that an illegal hunter passed the virus on to traders who brought it to Wuhan.
Wuhan was responsible for most of the 4,635 deaths of COVID-19 in China, but reports being free from outbreaks since the blockade was lifted last April.
A November study by the National Cancer Institute said the virus appeared to have circulated in Milan in September 2019 – three months before the outbreak was reported in Wuhan.
With Post Wires