By Asmau Ahmad
A Russian expert on Saturday said Wuhan’s Huanan seafood market may have made it possible for the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) to spread, but it does not mean the virus originated there.
A member of the WHO experts team, Vladimir Dedkov, said there is no evidence that the virus originated in Wuhan, “but hypothetically, there are all conditions for the spread of the virus there, he was was quoted as saying by Sputnik.
The seafood market was linked to an early cluster of COVID-19 cases, but scientists are yet to come to an unequivocal conclusion regarding the role it played in the contagion.
Dedkov also refuted the theory of a virus leakage while visiting the Wuhan Institute of Virology along with nine other WHO experts on Wednesday.
“Of course, it was important for our mission to visit this facility, talk to our colleagues and see how everything is organised there. The laboratory is perfectly equipped. It is hard for me to imagine that something could have leaked from there,” the expert said.
