The notorious ‘wet markets’ of China, which are the epicentres of the Chinese Coronavirus from where the deadly pandemic was exported to the rest of the world, have reopened selling bats pangolins and dogs for human consumption, reports Times of India. Generally, wet markets refer to the markets that sale fresh meat, fish etc, but in China these markets are known to sale meat of wild animals, which are known source of several deadly pathogens like the Wuhan Coronavirus.
The reopening of these dangerous wet markets has once again caused a scare across the world as scientists believe that the coronavirus causing COVID-19 was present inside a bat in China from that it and transferred into another animal, before getting passed on to humans.
The scientific reports suggest that a 55-year-old woman from China’s Hubei province may have been the first person to have contracted COVID-19 through one such wet market. Huanan Seafood Market in China’s Wuhan is believed to be the epicentre of coronavirus, which swept the world, engulfing lakhs as far as the United States and killing nearly 42,000 people.
“The markets have gone back to operating in exactly the same way as they did before coronavirus,” reported a correspondent of ‘A Mail on Sunday’.
However, the Chinese authorities have increased security at these wet markets to ensure that no one is able to take pictures of the blood-soaked floors, slaughtering of dogs and rabbits, and scared animals cramped in cages.
The World Health Organisation had said in a statement on January 12 had also stated that there was evidence to suggest that the outbreak is associated with exposures in one seafood market in Wuhan.
Four months on, the Chinese pandemic seems to be far from over even as Beijing celebrates victory over coronavirus with no vaccination insight for the pathogen, which many people worldwide call Wuhan virus or Chinese virus.
“Everyone here believes the outbreak is over and there’s nothing to worry about anymore. It’s just a foreign problem now as far as they are concerned,” a China-based correspondent was quoted by Washington Examiner.
According to Daily Mail report, the reopening of wet markets is China is a kind of “celebrating its victory” on coronavirus. Further, despite responsible for thousands of deaths, China has made no efforts to increase the hygiene standards to prevent a similar outbreak in the future. The report claims that many in China now believe that the pandemic is now over domestically and are going back to patronising the wet markets.
At present, the Chinese wet markets are selling caged dogs, cats, rabbits and ducks as meat. Also being sold were wild animals like bats, scorpions and lizards, which are used as traditional medicines in China.
The Chinese epidemic COVID-19 has now engulfed almost the entire world has killed more than 42,000 people across the world. More than 8.8 lakhs have been tested positive after coming in contact with Chinese virus COVID-19.
The United States of America leads the tally with 188,578 active cases and 3,890 deaths. Italy has seen the highest number of deaths with 12,428 succumbing to the Chinese virus out of the 105,792 affected. Interestingly, China which is the epicentre, according to its official figures, has only lost 3,305 people to the deadly pandemic.