New evidence reinforces theory Covid emerged at Chinese market
A French researcher has uncovered new evidence backing the theory that humans initially contracted the Covid-19 virus from animals at a market in China in late 2019 .
The study, which was co-authored by French scientist Florence Debarre and published in the scientific journal Cell on Thursday, says the virus may have emerged from wild animals that were present at a market in the city of Wuhan in late 2019
Nearly five years after Covid first emerged, the international community has still not been able to determine with certainty exactly where the virus came from.
The first cases were detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, but there have been disputes between proponents of the two main theories.
One is that the virus leaked from a Wuhan lab which studied related viruses, while the other is that people caught Covid from an infected wild animal being sold at a local market.
The scientific community has favoured the latter theory, but the controversy has rumbled on.
The study published in the Cell journal on Thursday is based on more than 800 samples collected at Wuhan's Huanan Seafood Market, where wild mammals were also believed to have been for sale.
The samples were collected in January 2020 after the market was shuttered, and were not taken directly from animals or people but from the surfaces of stalls selling wildlife, as well as from drains.
Presence of small mammals
"And these animals were in the southwest corner of the market, which also happens to be an area where a lot of SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, was detected."
Read more on RFI English
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