Will the Cause of COVID-19 Be Revealed? WHO Finds Important Clue at Wuhan Seafood Market

Scheduled for Announcement Before Departure on the 10th
Possibility of Cross-Infection from Handling Fish and Wild Animal Meat in Markets

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] The World Health Organization (WHO) expert team that visited China to investigate the origin of COVID-19 discovered important clues at the Wuhan seafood market, Bloomberg reported on the 6th (local time).

Peter Daszak, a member of the WHO team, said in a video call with the media, "We found some real clues showing what happened" regarding the origin of COVID-19 and zoonotic cross-infection. He predicted that the main investigation results would be released before the team leaves China on the 10th.

The Wuhan seafood market was the site of a cluster outbreak of COVID-19 in December 2019. Daszak analyzed, "In the moist seafood market, meat including seafood and wild animals was being sold. Considering that COVID-19 broke out among market vendors and customers, this place could be where the COVID-19 virus was transmitted from animals to humans."

He added, "Although the seafood market was closed and cleaned immediately after the COVID-19 outbreak, many items still remained. People left in a hurry, leaving behind equipment and tools, which we investigated."

Earlier, the WHO team led by Peter Ben Embarek visited the Wuhan seafood market and conducted investigations starting from the first day after their quarantine ended on the 29th of last month. Embarek said in a media interview at the time, "We will identify locations related to the COVID-19 outbreak and reconstruct the initial cluster infection. We hope to find records of animals and products traded here and talk with vendors who worked at the market."

On the other hand, Chinese experts argue that it is difficult to find evidence that COVID-19 originated at the seafood market, differing from the WHO team's opinion. Wu Zunyou, an epidemiology expert at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said, "On December 31, 2019, Wuhan reported 41 initial COVID-19 cases, of which only 27 were related to the Huanan seafood market. The rest of the infected individuals had no connection to the market." Professor Lu Hongzhou of the Shanghai Public Health Center at Fudan University also said, "The Huanan seafood market is more of a 'super-spreader location' rather than the origin of the coronavirus."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.