Market In Wuhan Was Not A Source Of SARS-CoV-2 Infection - PRC Authorities

Market in Wuhan was not a source of SARS-CoV-2 infection - PRC authorities

Studies of genetic samples of animals collected from the market have not confirmed the presence of coronavirus. But most likely, a “super-distributor” of infection appeared on the seafood market, infecting a large number of people.

Wuhan Market / Photo: Arend Kuester

This was announced by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of China Gao Fu (Gao Fu), the state media of the People's Republic of China, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“Now it turns out that the wholesale seafood market is one of the victims of the coronavirus, and not the source,” the official said.

Recall that an outbreak of an unknown disease in 41 people, the Wuhan authorities reported to the World Health Organization on December 31, 2019. Most of the cases were associated in one way or another with the seafood market, which also sold wild animals, so it was closed on January 1.

Given that the SARS outbreak in 2002 and 2003 began in a similar location in Guangdong after the virus "jumped" from bats to cats and infected people, it would be logical to assume that the source of infection was again a large market. wild animals.

Meanwhile, none of the genetic samples collected from the market have detected the coronavirus, Georgetown University zoologist Colin Carlson told Live Science, confirming the Chinese authorities' statement.

Apparently, the virus was circulating in Wuhan before the first cases were reported: study results published in January showed that the first patient to test positive for the coronavirus experienced early symptoms on December 8. A later study by Chinese scientists also confirms that the virus appeared earlier, and began to spread actively in early January.

According to Carlson, there is a possibility that there was a hotbed of superproliferation in the market, when one patient infects an atypically large number of other people. Several such cases have been recorded in the world, which created clusters of infection in one day. So, in South Korea, a parishioner of a church infected at least 43 people. This does not always mean that a person releases more viral particles than others. As a rule, this is due to close contact with a large number of people in one place.