• China's Wuhan seafood market likely cause of Covid-19 outbreak: Report

    International
    China's Wuhan seafood market likely cause of Covid-19 outbreak: Report




     Digital Desk: Once more, strong evidence has surfaced to support the
    claims that the Covid-19 pandemic, which has so far claimed more than 6 million
    lives, originated in Wuhan's Huanan seafood and wildlife market.



     



    The Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan was probably the coronavirus's epicentre,
    according to two peer-reviewed studies that were published in the journal
    "Science." The papers use different methodologies to reach the same
    conclusion.



     



    The initial
    investigation reveals that the Wuhan market was the centre of the early
    recorded cases.



     



    While early COVID-19
    instances appeared all around Wuhan, the bulk gathered in the city's centre
    near the Yangtze River's west bank, with a large concentration of cases in and
    around the Huanan market, according to a study published in the journal Science
    and available online.



     



    The title of the
    report is "The Wuhan Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market was the early
    COVID-19 pandemic epicentre."



     



    In contrast to
    SARS-CoV-2 positive environmental samples, we discovered that COVID-19 cases
    were more diffuse throughout the building. "All eight COVID-19 cases
    detected prior to 20 December were from the western side of the market, where
    mammal species were also sold," the study in journal Science adds.




    The second study
    implies that two variations were introduced into people in late November or
    early December 2019 and uses genetic data to track the time frame of the COVID
    outbreak.



     



    The peer-reviewed
    study, "The molecular epidemiology of various zoophytic origins of
    SARS-CoV-2," which was published in the journal Science and was quoted by
    CNN, uses a molecular technique to try and pinpoint when the first coronavirus
    infections spread from animals to people.



     



    The first
    animal-to-human transfer likely occurred around November 18, 2019, and it
    originated from lineage B, according to the study. The lineage B type was only
    discovered by the researchers in individuals with a clear link to the
    Hunan market.



    As with other coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 emergence likely resulted from
    multiple zoophytic events, the study said. "These findings indicate that it
    is unlikely that SARS-CoV-2 circulated widely in humans prior to November 2019
    and define the narrow window between when SARS-CoV-2 first jumped into humans
    and when the first cases of COVID-19 were reported."



     



    Despite following different paths, both studies come to the conclusion
    that Sars-Cov-2 was present in live mammals sold at the Huanan market in late
    2019. According to the two studies, the virus was spread to people working or
    shopping there in two separate "spillover events," where a human
    contracted the virus from an animal.