Tests have confirmed that the current coronavirus outbreak did start at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, as suspected.
Experts from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have said the virus was first caught by humans from animals at the food market, where everything from snakes, rats, beavers, wolf cubs and even koalas were reportedly on sale.
As reported by state-owned Xinhua news agency, the CDC said: “Thirty-one of the 33 positive samples were collected from the western zone of the market, where booths of wildlife trading concentrated.
“The result suggests that the novel coronavirus outbreak is highly relevant to the trading of wild animals.”
Gao Fu, director of China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, had previously blamed the site for the killer illness, saying: “The origin of the new coronavirus is the wildlife sold illegally in a Wuhan seafood market.”
He added that it was clear ‘this virus is adapting and mutating’.
The World Health Organisation also reported that The Huanan Seafood Market was closed on 1 January 2020 for environmental sanitation and disinfection.
According to a report, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been in regular and direct contact with Chinese authorities, as well as those in Japan, the Republic of Korean and Thailand, since the reporting of these cases.
These authorities have shared information with the WHO under international health regulations. The organisation is also informing other countries about the situation and providing support as requested.
The virus has been noted for its similarity to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed nearly 650 people back in 2002-2003.
