WHO probe team visits Wuhan market
01 February 2021 | International
NAMPA-AFP
WUHAN
A team of World Health Organisation (WHO) experts investigating the origins of Covid-19 visited a market in Wuhan yesterday where one of the first reported clusters of infections emerged over a year ago.
Members of the group arrived at Huanan seafood market - which has been sealed since January last year - driving into its barricaded premises as guards quickly blocked others from entering, according to AFP journalists at the scene.
The mission, delayed by China and weighed down by political baggage, has a remit to explore how the virus jumped from animal to human.
But with the fieldwork element of the trip in its early stages, WHO officials have already downplayed expectations of finding the source of a virus which has killed over two million people and devastated the global economy.
The WHO team arrived at the market as part of a long-planned trip now closely monitored by the Chinese authorities.
‘Informative and critical’
Team member Peter Daszak tweeted following the market tour that the group was on "very important site visits... a wholesale market first and Huanan Seafood Market just now".
"Very informative and critical for our joint teams to understand the epidemiology of Covid as it started to spread at the end of 2019," he said.
The experts did not take questions in person, and a member of the team shrugged and rolled up the car window when asked about his expectations for the visit.
Security staff told reporters outside to leave and shook a tall ladder on which a photographer was sitting for a better view.
Later, in response to a shouted question on whether the experts were satisfied with access, a member of the mission gave a thumbs-up
Earlier this week, state media outlet Global Times published a report downplaying the importance of Huanan as an early epicentre of the virus, claiming "subsequent investigations" have suggested the market was not the source of the outbreak.
Yesterday, the tabloid argued that "the possibility that the coronavirus was passed on from cold-chain products into Wuhan, or more specifically, to the Huanan wet market... cannot be ruled out".
Wild animals likely source
Chinese officials identified wild animals sold in the market as a likely source of the outbreak in initial stages of the pandemic, clamping down on the exotic animal trade in response.
A price list issued by a merchant at the emporium, which circulated online, showed an array of exotic wildlife available including civets, snakes and even live wolf pups.
Since then, state media have thrown support behind suggestions that the virus may have originated elsewhere, with a resurgence of local infections blamed instead on imports.
The WHO's expert team visited another site in Wuhan, the massive Baishazhou wholesale market, where business plunged after the outbreak.
While they entered the cold storage section, a speaker blasted a message: "No imported cold chain products are allowed on display; no cold chain products are allowed to be sold separately".
Chinese authorities have relentlessly pushed a positive narrative of heroism and decisive action in their fight against the coronavirus that has spurred an economic recovery and kept deaths down to 4 636.
Propaganda exhibition
On Saturday, the WHO experts' itinerary included a propaganda exhibition in Wuhan lauding the emergency response of the city's health authorities in the outbreak and the marshalling of the crisis by China's leader Xi Jinping.
China has faced criticism at home and abroad for downplaying the initial outbreak and concealing information when it first emerged in Wuhan in December 2019.
Details of the WHO team's itinerary have remained thin, with international media kept firmly at arm's length - the only glimpses of the trip have come through broadly positive tweets by some members of the expert team.
China continues to take a firm line against a recent surge in infections, with 12 officials in north-eastern Harbin city recently punished for dereliction of duty after a cluster of cases in a food processing company.
WUHAN
A team of World Health Organisation (WHO) experts investigating the origins of Covid-19 visited a market in Wuhan yesterday where one of the first reported clusters of infections emerged over a year ago.
Members of the group arrived at Huanan seafood market - which has been sealed since January last year - driving into its barricaded premises as guards quickly blocked others from entering, according to AFP journalists at the scene.
The mission, delayed by China and weighed down by political baggage, has a remit to explore how the virus jumped from animal to human.
But with the fieldwork element of the trip in its early stages, WHO officials have already downplayed expectations of finding the source of a virus which has killed over two million people and devastated the global economy.
The WHO team arrived at the market as part of a long-planned trip now closely monitored by the Chinese authorities.
‘Informative and critical’
Team member Peter Daszak tweeted following the market tour that the group was on "very important site visits... a wholesale market first and Huanan Seafood Market just now".
"Very informative and critical for our joint teams to understand the epidemiology of Covid as it started to spread at the end of 2019," he said.
The experts did not take questions in person, and a member of the team shrugged and rolled up the car window when asked about his expectations for the visit.
Security staff told reporters outside to leave and shook a tall ladder on which a photographer was sitting for a better view.
Later, in response to a shouted question on whether the experts were satisfied with access, a member of the mission gave a thumbs-up
Earlier this week, state media outlet Global Times published a report downplaying the importance of Huanan as an early epicentre of the virus, claiming "subsequent investigations" have suggested the market was not the source of the outbreak.
Yesterday, the tabloid argued that "the possibility that the coronavirus was passed on from cold-chain products into Wuhan, or more specifically, to the Huanan wet market... cannot be ruled out".
Wild animals likely source
Chinese officials identified wild animals sold in the market as a likely source of the outbreak in initial stages of the pandemic, clamping down on the exotic animal trade in response.
A price list issued by a merchant at the emporium, which circulated online, showed an array of exotic wildlife available including civets, snakes and even live wolf pups.
Since then, state media have thrown support behind suggestions that the virus may have originated elsewhere, with a resurgence of local infections blamed instead on imports.
The WHO's expert team visited another site in Wuhan, the massive Baishazhou wholesale market, where business plunged after the outbreak.
While they entered the cold storage section, a speaker blasted a message: "No imported cold chain products are allowed on display; no cold chain products are allowed to be sold separately".
Chinese authorities have relentlessly pushed a positive narrative of heroism and decisive action in their fight against the coronavirus that has spurred an economic recovery and kept deaths down to 4 636.
Propaganda exhibition
On Saturday, the WHO experts' itinerary included a propaganda exhibition in Wuhan lauding the emergency response of the city's health authorities in the outbreak and the marshalling of the crisis by China's leader Xi Jinping.
China has faced criticism at home and abroad for downplaying the initial outbreak and concealing information when it first emerged in Wuhan in December 2019.
Details of the WHO team's itinerary have remained thin, with international media kept firmly at arm's length - the only glimpses of the trip have come through broadly positive tweets by some members of the expert team.
China continues to take a firm line against a recent surge in infections, with 12 officials in north-eastern Harbin city recently punished for dereliction of duty after a cluster of cases in a food processing company.
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