A team of experts led by the World Health Organization investigating the origins of Covid-19 has visited the market of Huanan, the now-closed wholesale seafood center in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus was found. first.
The Huanan team arrived amid heavy security, with additional barricades set up outside a high blue fence around the market, and left in a convoy after about an hour. The experts did not take questions from journalists.
Since its two-week quarantine release Thursday, the team has visited hospitals and markets, as well as a display commemorating the battle of Wuhan with the virus, which included a 76-day lockdown of the city of 11 one million.
“Site visits are very important today – first wholesale market & current Huanan Seafood Market. Very informative and critical for our teammates to understand Covid’s epidemiology as it began to spread in late 2019, ”team member Peter Daszak said on Twitter.
The WHO, which has tried to control expectations for the mission, said on Friday that team members would be limited to tours organized by their Chinese guests and would have no contact with community members, due to health restrictions.
A complete itinerary for the team’s two weeks of fieldwork was not announced, and reporters covering the tightly controlled trip were kept at a distance from team members. Public access to Huanan’s wholesale seafood market has been limited since it closed at the beginning of last year.
Before it closed, the market was busy with hundreds of stalls divided into sections for meat, seafood and vegetables. It now stands as a landmark in an enslaved city as the main original center of the pandemic.
On December 31, 2019, after four cases of topical pneumonia were linked to the market, it was closed overnight. By the end of January, Wuhan had entered a 76-day lockout.
Experts say the Huanan market still has a role to play in tracing the origin of the virus, since the first group of cases was identified there.
The WHO-led study in Wuhan has been dismissed by delays, concerns over access and bribery between China and the US, which has accused China of hiding the level of first-rate and criticizing conditions of the trip, under which Chinese experts conducted the first stage of research.
The origin of the virus has become highly political, and some Chinese diplomats and state media have thrown support behind theories that the virus could come from another country.
The team was expected to arrive in Wuhan earlier in January, and China’s delay in their trip drew rare public criticism from the WHO leader, who then accused US President Donald Trump as “China-centric “.