“If the Huanan market was the origin of the transmission chains that led to the COVID-19 pandemic, the common ancestor of the market’s virus genotypes should be the same as that of the pandemic… We found that the common ancestor of the market-associated genomes was equivalent to the ancestor of the larger pandemic,” the publication says (quote from RIA Novosti).
Mammals that can be infected with coronavirus were also sold at a market in Wuhan. These included bamboo rats and raccoon dogs, as well as Malayan porcupines, Asian badgers and Amur hedgehogs. They will be available for purchase at the market in December 2019.
From the samples collected, it was found that the animals were indeed infected. Moreover, most of the shops where these animals were sold were located in the western part of the market, where the first cases of the disease were recorded.
Recall that in late December 2019, the Chinese government informed the WHO about an outbreak of unknown pneumonia in Wuhan and Hubei province. In January, it was officially announced that the cause of the viral pneumonia outbreak was a new type of COVID.
The COVID-19 situation, caused by the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, was officially declared an international health emergency on January 30, 2020, and received pandemic status on March 11.
The state of emergency was lifted on May 5, 2023.
