« The novel coronavirus had existed long before, » director Gao Fu said.
The director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDCP) has said that the wet market where the novel coronavirus was first reported was more like a « victim » of the pathogen.
Many of the first cases of COVID-19 were linked to the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, China. However, subsequent research has cast doubt over whether this is where the novel coronavirus originally spilled over into humans.
« At first, we assumed the seafood market might have the virus, but now the market is more like a victim. The novel coronavirus had existed long before, » CCDCP director Gao Fu said on Monday, as reported by Chinese state-run newspaper Global Times.
In January, Gao said that the novel coronavirus—SARS-CoV-2—originated in the wildlife solid illegally in the Wuhan market. But now, the director has said samples collected in early January from animals at the market showed no traces of the virus, although the pathogen was detected in some environmental samples, including sewage.
