WHO teams visits Wuhan grocery store searching for COVID-19 clues
31 January, 2021
A World Health Organization (WHO) workforce looking into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic on Sunday (Jan 31) visited a market referred to to be the food distribution middle for the Chinese city of Wuhan during the 76-day lockdown last year.
The associates were seen walking through parts of the Baishazhou marketplace - one of the largest wet market segments in Wuhan - surrounded by a big entourage of Chinese officials and representatives.
The members, with expertise in veterinarian, virology, food safety and epidemiology, have so far visited two hospitals at the guts of the first outbreak - Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital and the Hubei Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine Medical center.
Ken Maeda (middle) of the World Wellness Organization crew prepares to keep for a third moment of field visits in Wuhan, Jan 31, 2021. (Photo: AP/Ng Han Guan)
On Saturday, in addition they visited a museum exhibition focused on the first history of COVID-19.
The Geneva-based WHO said on Twitter last Thursday that the team plans to visit hospitals and markets just like the Huanan Seafood Market, that was linked to lots of the first cases. They also detailed the Wuhan Institute of Virology and laboratories at facilities including the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control.
The mission is becoming politically charged, as China seeks in order to avoid blame for alleged missteps in its early response to the outbreak.
An individual visit by researchers is unlikely to verify the virus’s origins. Pinning down an outbreak’s creature reservoir is normally an exhaustive endeavor that calls for years of exploration including taking creature samples, genetic research and epidemiological studies.
A plainclothes security staff uses his umbrella to block journalists from filming following the World Health Company team reach the Baishazhou wholesale market, Jan 31, 2021. (Photo: AP/Ng Han Guan)
One possibility is a wildlife poacher may have passed the virus to traders who carried it to Wuhan. The Chinese federal government provides promoted theories, with little evidence, that the outbreak may have began with imports of frozen seafood tainted with the virus, a concept roundly rejected by overseas scientists and agencies.
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