Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) who are investigating the origin of the coronavirus in China went to the Huanan market in Wuhan on Sunday, the first known focus of the epidemic.
This market, where live wild animals were sold, has been closed since January 2020, and guards only let in vehicles from the WHO investigative group.
Released from 14 days of quarantine on Thursday, the team members began their field investigation on Friday.
"This is not an investigation"
This visit is politically highly sensitive for Beijing, accused of having delayed reacting to the first cases of Covid reported at the end of 2019 in the immense metropolis of central China. The communist power is almost silent on the subject and Beijing minimizes the scope of the mission of foreign specialists: "This is not an investigation," said Friday a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zhao Lijian, refusing let his country be singled out. On Sunday, experts did not answer any questions when they arrived at the market. Members of the security services ordered the journalists present to leave. Tainted by controversial management during the first weeks of the epidemic, the communist power on the contrary praises its victory against the coronavirus, while the rest of the world appears to be overwhelmed by the epidemic. If China was able to limit the contagion to less than 90,000 cases and the number of deaths to 4,636, according to the official count, the virus has spread across the globe, with a death toll of more than 2 million.