WHO team visits wet market in Wuhan to trace origin of coronavirus

A team of WHO (World Health Organisation) experts, which is investigating the origin of the novel coronavirus, visited the wet market in China’s Wuhan on Sunday, AFP reported. The wet market is where one of the first reported clusters of infections emerged in late 2019.

According to AFP journalists, 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.

The WHO team has gone to China to probe how the deadly virus jumped to humans from an animal source. However, they’ve already downplayed expectations of finding the source of the virus.

On Sunday, the WHO team arrived at the Huanan market as part of a long-planned trip now closely monitored by the Chinese authorities.

The experts did not take any questions and the sprawling market remains boarded up, AFP reported.

Security staff told reporters outside to leave and shook a tall ladder on which a photographer was sitting for a better view.

Earlier this week, state media outlet Global Times published a report downplaying the importance of Huanan as an early epicenter of the virus, claiming “subsequent investigations” have suggested the market was not the source of the outbreak.

Chinese authorities have relentlessly pushed a positive narrative of heroism and decisive, swift action in their fight against the coronavirus that has spurred an economic recovery and kept deaths down to 4,636.

Meanwhile, globally, the virus has infected over 102.5 million people and has killed more than 2.2 million of them.