Wuhan wet market most likely source of COVID-19 outbreak: WHO probe team to China

The Wuhan wet market is still the most likely hypothesis for the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, as per the team of the World Health Organization (WHO) associated scientists sent to China. Speaking at a press conference in Wuhan, Dr. Peter Daszak, president of NGO EcoHealth Alliance and one of the experts stressed that the team identified a ‘viable conduit’ between the wet market and the region where closest relatives of coronavirus were found. The thirteen-member team has earlier confirmed that the virus was not artificially created in a report that dismissed the western claim that the Chinese government deliberately spread the pandemic.  

Following months of negotiations with the Chinese government, WHO finally sent its team of experts to probe into the origins of COVID-19. The team which consists of leading virologists from ten countries has previously concluded that the lethal SARS-CoV-2 originated inside bats before jumping into human beings. Now, doubling down on the stance, Dr. Daszak revealed that they have discovered a “link and a pathway” by which the virus convincingly spilled into “either people” or “animals farmed in the region” before getting shipped into the Huanan market. 

"It provides a link and a pathway by which these viruses could convincingly spill over from wildlife into either people or animals farmed in the region and then shipped into the market by some means," he told media reporters. 

Elaborating further on March 12, Dr. Daszak clarified that the theory that the virus crossed into domesticated or farmed animals and got into the Wuhan market was the scenario considered most likely by WHO scientists and their Chinese counterparts, as reported by Evening standard. 

Not from the Wuhan labs

Meanwhile, the scientists also confirmed that they did not find any evidence which said that the coronavirus was leaked from one of the three virology labs in Wuhan. The scientists clarified that they were given full access to the labs where they, after proper analysis, found no evidence of the pandemic being created by an accidental lab accident. 

Earlier this month, the head of the WHO mission in Wuhan, stated four hypotheses on how the virus spread but reiterated that the "laboratory incident hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus into the human population". "It has not been possible to pinpoint any animal species as a potential reservoir for this disease, and they indicate that currently and also back in 2019 it does not look like there was the circulation of the virus in any animal species in the country," he said.

(Inputs: ANI/Image: AP)