The Wuhan Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market, where a number of people related to the market fell ill with a virus, sits closed in Wuhan, China, Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Chinese wet markets, one of which in Wuhan is said to be the Ground Zero of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, are back in action. The United Kingdom-based Daily Mail reported from one the markets which re-opened in the southern city of Guilin, hours after the Chinese government declared victory of the coronavirus on March 28. The markets, selling exotic animals for meat consumption, re-opened across China on the same day.
The British journalists have recorded seeing even bats being sold in these markets. Significantly, the outbreak of the coronavirus is attributed to SARS-COV2 virus, which is known to reside in horseshoe bats.
The Daily Mail journalists reported that they witnessed thousands of shoppers, apparently undisturbed by the recent coronavirus outbreak, flocking to the market in at least two Chinese cities, including Guilin and Dongguan.
Daily Mail noticed that the only difference in the way the market functioned was that a security guard was not stationed at the entrance to the Dongguan market, so to avoid people from taking pictures.
When a journalist asked a shopper at Guilin market if they were scared of being in the market, in the aftermath of the viral outbreak, he was told that ‘everyone believes that the pandemic is over.’
As of March 31, the total number of infected patients due to the coronavirus crossed the 8 lakh-mark, including more than 39,000 deaths. Two-thirds of the deaths have been reported from the European Union, which is the new epicentre of the coronavirus.
Also read: Worldwide coronavirus infections cross 8 lakh mark; 38,748 deaths reported so far
