A police officer stands guard outside of Huanan Seafood Wholesale market in Wuhan on January 24, 2020. Data shows racoon dogs and other species were likely present at Huanan market in Wuhan and potentially infected. Photograph: Héctor Retamal/AFP/Getty Images
Newly released data from early in the Covid-19 pandemic has offered a crucial insight into the outbreak’s origins, suggesting that Covid-infected animals were present at a market in Wuhan and could have been a “potential source of human infections”.
A pre-print report on Monday by a team of international researchers fleshed out analysis of previously unseen genomic samples collected by Chinese scientists at the Huanan market in Wuhan in the early days of the pandemic.
