Scientists from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona, the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the Scripps Institution, the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and other institutions say the first cases of COVID-19 infection occurred in a seafood market in the Chinese city of Wuhan.. The researchers published their findings in the journal Science..

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Scientists note that the seafood market was considered as a source of the disease in early reports of an outbreak of coronavirus infections.. However, over time this claim has been challenged.. In their own study, scientists found that for the first cases of the disease in December 2019, including those that were not officially reported, this market was the geographic center..

Moreover, environmental samples tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 have been associated with sellers of live mammals in this market..

The researchers note that there is not enough data that can tell about the events that preceded the infection, as well as the exact circumstances of the infection.. However, the analysis shows that the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 occurred as a result of trade in live wild animals in China.. The epicenter of the spread of the disease was the Huan market in Wuhan.

“All eight cases of COVID-19 identified up to December 20 were reported on the west side of the market, which also sold mammals,” the study says.. Proximity to five stalls selling live or recently slaughtered animals was critical to the spread of the disease..

Study co-author Michael Sparrow told CNN that his team had mapped the earliest non-market related cases.. It turned out that all these people worked or lived in close proximity to him..

“This indicates that the virus first spread between people who worked in the market, but then began to spread... to the surrounding local population, when sellers entered local stores and infected people who worked in them,” Vorobey said..

Another study was able to trace the time frame of the emergence of coronavirus. Scientists show that the earliest version of the causative agent of the disease existed in two versions, called A and B.. They were the result of at least two cases of interspecies transmission to humans..

The researchers suggest that the first animal-to-human transmission of the virus likely occurred around November 18, 2019 and was descended from the B lineage.. They only found line type B in people who were directly related to the Huanan market..

Important! This publication is based on the latest and current scientific research in the field of medicine and is for general information purposes only.. Publication cannot be the basis for establishing any diagnoses. If you are ill or need a diagnosis, see your doctor!