After accessing leaked 'map' of Wuhan market, report discloses China's 'lack of transparency' in COVID-19 investigation
Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market
As the World Health Organization(WHO) investigates the origin of the coronavirus in China, the South China Morning Post(SCMP) published the leaked "floor plan" of the Huanan market in Wuhan where the COVID-19 pandemic allegedly began.
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The report showed "colour-coded plan" of data collected by Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in January where the first infection is reported to have taken place including the "653 stalls" where the virus first took place.
China had reported the first case of the virus to the WHO on December 31, 2019 with the Huanan seafood wholesale market becoming the prime target of investigation byauthorities. The market was famous for selling everything from seafood and vegetables to wild animals in hundreds of stalls numbering well over 1,000.
The SCMP said experts cited "lack of transparency" about what other information was gathered by scientists and investigators in China. The report said Chinese officials had later "ruled out" the market as the place where the virus first infected humans, citing medical investigations of the facilities.
The report said Chinese scientists sent a document to the WHO in which "none of the frozen carcasses tested positive, while 69 of 842 environmental samples did."
"Beyond these numbers, little information is available about which animals were sampled and the extent of follow-up studies on humans and animals linked to the market."
"China has not disclosed if live animals were among those sampled," the report added.
SCMP highlighted that The Lancet medical journal report had found that Wuhan’s market was linked to about "two-thirds of the first 41 COVID-19 cases identified in the city" with live animals such as bamboo rats, badgers and deer being sold at the market and that "it seemed a likely place for a pathogen to leap species", however it said that "three of the first four COVID-19 patients had no evident ties to the market."
The WHO health investigators need to find out how the virus was transmitted including understand the drainage and sewage systems at the Wuhan market to knowthe "transmission pathway".
The report said very little is still known about the investigations intothe COVID-19 outbreak in the market due to lack of "analytical epidemiological study among vendors and shoppers".