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For 6 years, Lai Yun, the owner of a restaurant in Wuhan, started the day by going to the Hoa Nam Seafood Market to shop, but everything changed on December 31, 2019.
“I take my children to school, breakfast and on my way to the market. It is in a very convenient location,” said Lai Yun, who lives far from the South China seafood market in Wuhan City, capital of Hubei Province. , China. Nacional, just a 10-minute walk away, he said.
However, after just one night, the large wholesale market was closed due to the discovery of four strange cases of pneumonia related to this place. Towards the end of January, the Wuhan government issued a blockade, banning people from leaving their homes, opening a 76-day chain of painful anti-Covid-19 “castle”.
Almost a year after the outbreak, the pandemic has claimed the lives of more than 1.5 million people worldwide and has caused the “nose” of public opinion to point to the seafood market in southern China, which is suspected is the starting point. . Now, even when Wuhan has returned to normal life, the market is still empty.
A row of eyewear stores on the second floor of Huanan Market in Wuhan, China, on December 8. Image: Reuters.
Hoa Nam Seafood Market is also mired in the fierce battle in both science and politics around the origin of nCoV. While the World Health Organization (WHO) think tank has yet to come to Wuhan, Washington relentlessly blames Beijing for the pandemic, evidenced by the fact that President Donald Trump calls nCoV “the Chinese virus “. . In response, China accused the United States of politicizing the crisis and treating it unfairly.
The Chinese media recently reported the detection of nCoV in imported frozen food packages, although scientists do not consider it a source of concern, and studies have shown VOC infections. may appear outside of China before December 2019, apparently in an attempt to change the view of the origin of Covid-19.
“Although China is the first country to report the infection, it does not mean that the virus originated in China,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Trieu Lap Kien. “Traceability is an ongoing process that can involve many countries and regions.”
In Wuhan, where it is still “under the radar” of being the world’s first Covid-19 hotspot, many residents and business owners say they do not believe the virus originated in the city.
“It definitely can’t be Wuhan. Make sure someone has brought the virus or is spread from some imported product from abroad. There are only certain conditions for it to appear here,” said one person. seller said Chen.
Experts say that the Hoa Nam seafood market still plays an important role in investigating the origin of nCoV, so it is unlikely that it will be demolished, although most investigations will be based on samples collected here since the moment. a new pandemic has started.
Market access remains quite limited. Before the blockade, the market was always packed with hundreds of zoned stalls selling red meat, seafood and vegetables, but recently billboards have been put up around the area.
Inside the market, wooden planks blocked the front of the store and the windows. On the second floor above the empty market, the radiometer and optometrist shops reopened in June, but this week, at the entrance to the glasses area, a shelter appeared to measure body temperature, simultaneously. warn journalists not to take videos or photographs within the market.
“Maybe some people still feel insecure about the market, but now it’s just an empty building. Who cares about a deserted place?” An employee at a contact lens store said anonymously.
Although Wuhan has not recorded any new cases of nCoV infections in the community since May, some people who depend on the Hoa Nam market for a living are still struggling to make a living. Lai Yun, who reopened his Japanese restaurant in June, said the market closure and fears of the danger of nCOV contamination from imported seafood caused the price of some ingredients to increase by 5 times.
“Our goal next year is to survive,” said the 38-year-old.
Gloss (According to the Reuters)
