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WHO team visits Wuhan food market

A WORLD Health Organisation (WHO) team looking into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic has visited the seafood market in the Chinese city of Wuhan that was linked to many early infections.

The team members visited Huanan Seafood Market for about an hour in the afternoon, and one of them flashed a thumbs up sign when reporters asked how the trip was going.

The market was the site of a December 2019 outbreak of the virus. Scientists initially suspected the virus came from wild animals sold in the market.

The market has since been largely ruled out but it could provide hints to how the virus spread so widely.

“Very important site visits today – a wholesale market first and Huanan Seafood Market just now,” Peter Daszak, a zoologist with the US group EcoHealth Alliance and a member of the WHO team, said in a tweet.

“Very informative and critical for our joint teams to understand the epidemiology of Covid as it started to spread at the end of 2019.”

Earlier in the day, the team members were also seen walking through sections of the Baishazhou market – which is one of the largest wet markets in Wuhan – surrounded by a large entourage of Chinese officials and representatives.

The market was the food distribution centre for Wuhan during the city’s 76-day lockdown last year.

The members, with expertise in veterinary medicine, virology, food safety and epidemiology, have so far visited two hospitals at the centre of the early outbreak – Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital and the Hubei Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine Hospital.