Source of Xinfadi cases renews guess over virus origin

Evidence shows that the source of infection in Beijing’s new coronavirus outbreak points at Europe, seemingly casting new doubt over the origins of the COVID-19 epidemic, with some netizens and experts speculating the outbreak that occurred in Wuhan’s Huanan seafood market may also relate to imported food or animals.

Preliminary investigations showed that the type of novel coronavirus found on samples collected from Xinfadi Market, a locus of the new outbreak in Beijing, was related to European cases rather than Chinese domestic cases according to genome sequencing, said Beijing authority.

Experts said this finding indicated that it is very likely the clustered infections in Beijing were caused by imported seafood that was contaminated by the coronavirus in Europe before being delivered to China.

Reacting to the findings of genome sequencing in Beijing, Wu Hao, head of the Fangzhuang community health service center, said that the virus could have come to China via imported seafood, which might be the source of the virus in the Huanan seafood market.

“Please have an investigation over the source of imported seafood that was sold in the Huanan seafood market, and make a comparison with the imported seafood in Beijing’s Xinfadi Market,” a netizen posted, asking if the seafood from the two markets came from the same overseas source.

But some vendors in the Huanan seafood market said most seafood sold in the market came from nearby regions such as Qianjiang, a city near Wuhan. Some others denied to comment when asked if there had been imported seafood sold in the market.

According to recent research by a team led by virologist Shi Zhengli from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the virus’ full genome was 96 percent similar to a viral sequence reported from horseshoe bats. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the novel coronavirus may have come from outside China, like from Southeast Asian countries where horseshoe bats also live.