WUHAN (CHINA) – A team of investigators under the leadership of the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived to inspect an animal health facility in Wuhan on Tuesday to look for clues about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The team of independent investigators has already visited major hospitals, the regional disease control centre and the Huanan seafood market, where the first cluster of cases was believed to have originated in 2019.
The trip was going “really well, excellent,” said a member of the team Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance.
The centre being inspected could provide information on how the epidemic in horseshoe bats crossed into humans via an intermediary species.
WHO’s top expert on zoonotic diseases originating in animals Peter Ben Embarek is part of the team of investigators who entered the facility clad in personal protective equipment.