Scientists say there is “compelling evidence” that Wuhan’s Huanan seafood and wildlife market was at the center of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Two peer-reviewed studies published on [July 26] re-examine information from the initial outbreak in the Chinese city.
One of the studies shows that the earliest known cases were clustered around that market. The other uses genetic information to track the timing of the outbreak.
Together, the researchers say this evidence paints a picture that Sars-Cov-2 was present in live mammals that were sold at Huanan market in late 2019. They say it was transmitted into people who were working or shopping there in two separate “spillover events”, where a human contracted the virus from an animal.
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This has enabled them to address a key conundrum in the earliest patient data: That out of hundreds of people who were hospitalized with Covid-19 in Wuhan, only about 50 had a direct, traceable link to the market.
“That was really puzzling that most cases could not be linked to the market,” said Prof Robertson. “But knowing what we know about the virus now, it’s exactly what we would expect – because many people only get very mildly ill, so they would be out in the community transmitting the virus to others and the severe cases would be hard to link to each other.”
