A team of experts led by the World Health Organization departed the Chinese city of Wuhan today, Wednesday after finishing their investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.
The team arrived in Wuhan on January 14 and after two weeks of quarantine, visited key sites including the Huanan seafood market, the location of the first known cluster of infections, as well as the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has been involved in coronavirus research.
One of the experts, Peter Ben Embarek, said that the possibility of the virus having been introduced locally from a frozen stage was “worth exploring,” just before checking for his departing flight.
During a Tuesday news conference, Mr. Embarek said bats remain a likely source and that transmission of the virus via frozen food is a possibility that warrants further investigation, but he ruled out a lab leak.
