A team of experts from the World Health Organization visited the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China on Sunday in search of clues to the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The team of scientists and health experts visited the site of the now-closed wholesale seafood market in the Chinese city of Wuhan where the new coronavirus was first detected in December 2019.
The WHO team visited the site for about an hour Sunday afternoon as one of them flashed a thumbs-up sign when reporters asked how the trip was going.
After undergoing strict two-week quarantine after their arrival in China, the WHO team started their site visits and investigation on Thursday (January 28).
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.
“Another important site visit today to the Huanan seafood market – the place we know a large number of the early reported cases were associated with. Very informative for us to see the layout of the market & speak with staff,” Peter Daszak, one of the WHO Team members posted on Twitter on Sunday.
“As you walk around Huanan market you feel the sense of historical importance of this place & a sympathy for the vendors & community who lost their livelihoods due to COVID,” Daszak earlier tweeted.
The WHO team also earlier visited the hospital that treated some of the first known cases of COVID-19. The first hospital the team visited was the Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine where they met with the actual clinicians and staff who did the first frontline battle against the coronavirus.
According to China’s official account of its response to the initial Covid-19 outbreak, Dr. Zhang Jixian first reported cases of what was then known as “pneumonia of unknown origin” at the hospital on Dec. 27, 2019.
“All hypotheses are on the table as the team follows the science in their work to understand the origins of the COVID19 virus,” the WHO tweeted.
The WHO also said while in quarantine, the team had daily virtual meetings with Chinese scientists, who shared updates on relevant Covid-19 studies done in China plus other information and experiences. The team also made requests for detailed underlying data, among other things.
Field visits will also be conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Wuhan CDC laboratory as the team aims to speak with early responders and some of the first COVID-19 patients.
WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus last Saturday ( January 30) recalled the first declaration of the outbreak and of a public health emergency of international concern – the highest level of alarm at our disposal under international law.
Since then, a year after the global declaration of the outbreak, the WHO said the world has seen ‘tragic milestones’ as the pandemic passed more than 2 million deaths and over 100 million confirmed cases of Covid-19.
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