WUHAN,(CHINA) – The WHO-led team of experts investigating the origins of COVID-19 in China will be visiting Huanan market later on Sunday, a wholesale seafood centre where the new coronavirus was initially detected.
The market has been severely cordoned off to the public, with barricades and round-the-clock security . It was shutdown 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.
However, Chinese diplomats and state media have said they believe the market is not the origin, and continues to support theories that the virus potentially originated in another country.
On Dec. 31, 2019, after four cases of a mystery pneumonia were linked to the market, it was closed overnight. By the end of January, Wuhan had gone into a 76-day lockdown.
Experts believe that since the first cluster of cases was identified there, Huanan market still plays a role in tracing the origins of the virus.
The WHO team whose two-week quarantine ended on Thursday is expected to visit laboratories, markets and hospitals in Wuhan.
