Covid: WHO team visits Wuhan market where first infections detected

Wuhan - The new coronavirus was initially detected at a wholesale seafood centre in Huanan.

A World Health Organization-led team of experts investigating the origins of COVID-19 visited Huanan market on Sunday, the wholesale seafood centre in the central Chinese city of Wuhan where the new coronavirus was initially detected.

Also read: Team visits Wuhan hospital that took first Covid patients

The team of experts arrived at Huanan on Sunday afternoon amid a heavy security presence, with additional barricades set up outside a high blue fence surrounding the market.

The WHO experts did not respond to questions thrown at them by reporters gathered at the entrance as their convoy drove into the market. The barricades came down as soon as they had entered.

Public access to the market has been severely restricted since it was shut at the beginning of last year. Before its closure, it was a bustling market comprising hundreds of stalls divided into sections for meat, seafood and vegetables.

Some Chinese diplomats and state media have said they believe the market is not the origin, and have thrown support behind theories that the virus potentially originated in another country.

On December 31, 2019, after four cases of a mystery pneumonia were linked to the market, it was shuttered overnight. By the end of January, Wuhan had gone into a 76-day lockdown.