WHO probe team in Wuhan visits market at heart of first outbreak

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 wholesale seafood centre, which has been sealed since January last year, driving into its barricaded premises as guards quickly blocked others from entering, according to 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 a trip in its early stages, WHO officials have already downplayed expectations of finding the source of a virus which has killed more than two million people and devastated the global economy.

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.

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 has thrown support behind suggestions that the virus may have originated elsewhere, with a resurgence of local infections blamed instead on imports.

The 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.

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.

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 following a cluster of cases in a food processing company.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

WHO investigation team visits Wuhan market

Members of a World Health Organisation (WHO) team arriving yesterday at Huanan wholesale seafood centre in Wuhan, the capital of China's central Hubei province. The market was where one of the first clusters of Covid-19 infections was found in late 2019. Chinese officials had, in the early stages of the pandemic, identified wild animals sold there as a likely source of the outbreak. The WHO team has a remit to explore how the virus jumped from animal to human, but details of its itinerary are thin, with international media kept firmly at arm's length.