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| Covid -19 virus |
The World Health Organization sent an international team to Wuhan, China in January to investigate where the virus came from and how it was introduced into the human population. Yet the investigation yielded few definitive answers.
The experts also said there was "no indication" that the virus was
circulating in Wuhan before the first official cases were recorded there
in December 2019.
The WHO team will not be revisiting that hypothesis in future studies, he said, adding that the virus most likely jumped from an animal host into people — as the Ebola and SARS viruses did.
Liang Wannian, an expert with China's Health Commission, said Covid-19 could have been in other regions before it was detected in Wuhan.
Dr Peter Daszak, a member of the WHO team, said the focus on where the origins that led to Covid-19 might be, could be shifted to South East Asia.
Their search for clues also included a visit to the now-famous wet market in Huanan - selling fish, meat and live wild animals - that was linked to some of the first human cases.
The team say the virus may have jumped from animals to humans, but they don't have the proof yet.
Possible carriers include bats and pangolins, but tests so far have yet
to find convincing evidence for this. Another line of investigation is
whether the virus could have spread through imported frozen food. The
hunt for the origin will continue.
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