Scientists said the coronavirus data included new sequences of the virus and additional genomic data based on samples taken from a live animal market in Wuhan in 2020.
Data from the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic has provided crucial information on the outbreak's origins, according to researchers.was first identified in Wuhan in December 2019, with the Huanan live animal market widely suspected to be the source, before it rapidly spread around the world and killed nearly seven million people.
Scientists said it included new sequences of the virus and additional genomic data based on samples taken from a live animal market in Wuhan in 2020.The US Energy Department previously reignited debate on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic by stating the virus may have come from a laboratory accident in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
The sequences showed that raccoon dogs and other animals susceptible to COVID-19 were present in the market and may have been infected - providing the experts with a new clue in the chain of transmission that eventually reached humans. "This adds to the body of evidence identifying the Huanan market as the spillover location of Sars-CoV-2 and the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic," the scientists said in the report.The authors who accessed the data included the University of Arizona's Michael Worobey, Kristian Andersen of Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, as well as Florence Débarre at the Sorbonne University in Paris.
The report also added more detail about other animals present at the Wuhan market, and showed that some of the COVID-positive environmental samples contained more animal than human genetic material, consistent with the animals being infected.
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