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WUHAN (REUTERS, AFP) – The head of the team led by the World Health Organization in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, investigating the origins of Covid-19, said on Tuesday (February 9) that the Cold chain virus transmission is a possibility and thorough investigation is warranted.
“Cold chain” refers to the transport and trade of frozen food. China has pushed the idea that the virus can be transmitted through frozen food and has repeatedly announced findings of traces of coronavirus in imported food packaging.
However, Dr. Peter Ben Embarek, a WHO animal disease specialist who leads the independent group of experts, also said that the team’s nearly month-long investigation in Wuhan had not dramatically changed the image of the outbreak.
“We know that the virus can survive in conditions found in these cold, frozen environments, but we don’t really understand if the virus can be transmitted to humans” or under what conditions, he said at the briefing.
Dr Embarek said it would be worth exploring whether a frozen wild animal in a market environment with the right conditions could lead to rapid spread of the virus.
He said work to identify the origins of the coronavirus points to a natural reservoir in bats, but it is unlikely they were in Wuhan, the city where the outbreak was first identified in late 2019.
He also said researchers were looking to see if the virus was circulating earlier than previously thought and that blood samples needed to be found for further research.
A laboratory leak is unlikely
The possibility that the virus leaked from a laboratory, another hypothesis, was extremely unlikely and required no further study, Dr. Embarek said at the briefing.
Dr. Liang Wannian, an expert with the China Health Commission, also told the press conference that there had been no substantial spread of the virus in the city prior to the outbreak in late 2019.
Research has yet to find the host animal responsible for transferring the virus to humans, Dr. Liang said. Transmission from animals was likely, but so far “the reservoir hosts have not yet been identified,” he added.
The WHO team arrived in Wuhan on January 14 and, after two weeks of quarantine, visited key sites such as the Huanan Seafood Market, the location of the first known cluster of infections, as well as the Wuhan Institute of Virology, who has been involved in the coronavirus. investigation.
Team members have tried to control expectations about the mission, and zoologist Peter Daszak said last week that one of their goals was “to identify the next steps to fill in the gaps.”
Another member of the team, infectious disease expert Dominic Dwyer, said it would likely take years to fully understand the origins of Covid-19.
The United States said China needed to be more open when it comes to sharing data and samples, as well as allowing access to patients, medical personnel and laboratory workers. Beijing subsequently accused Washington of politicizing a scientific mission.
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