A team of investigators from the World Health Organization in China investigating the origins of the coronavirus told CNN that they now have months of data on the Chinese flu that could contain vital clues about the early spread of the virus.
On Sunday, the team visited the wet market considered essential for the spread of the disease: the now disinfected and closed Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan City, where an initial group of pneumonia-like diseases were observed by doctors in mid-December 2019. became an anecdotal “zero zero” for Covid-19, although further studies have suggested that it could have started elsewhere.
Peter Ben Embarek, the leader of the WHO team and a food safety specialist, told CNN that “even if the place had been somewhat disinfected, all the shops are there – and the equipment is there. It gives you a good idea of the state of the market in terms of maintenance, infrastructure, hygiene and the flow of goods and people. “The team was able to talk to locals and workers,” Ben Embarek said. He warned that it was too early in their investigations to draw conclusions.
“It’s clear that something happened in that market,” said Ben Embarek. “But other places may also have the same role and that one was chosen only because some doctors were smart enough to link a few sporadic cases.
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