Wet markets in China still operating despite coronavirus outbreak - repor
Like nothing even happened
Australian-based news outlet news.com.au has reported that thousands have begun flocking back to wet markets across China in places such as Dongguan and Guilin, despite these markets being considered ground zero for coronavirus outbreaks.
Considering the decline in new coronavirus cases throughout the country, authorities have begun reopening businesses in an attempt to heal the world's second largest economy.
The city of Wuhan, at the center of the outbreak, reported no new cases for a sixth day, as businesses reopened and residents set about reclaiming a more normal life after a lockdown for almost two months.
“The markets have gone back to operating in exactly the same way as they did before coronavirus,” according to a Daily Mail correspondent who visited the market told the publication. “The only difference is that security guards try to stop anyone taking pictures, which would never have happened before.”
They have come under closer scrutiny in recent months after the coronavirus outbreak was linked to a seafood market in Wuhan, China.
That market was shut down, and authorities said they would ban illegal wildlife trade and tighten supervision of wet markets, as a debate raged on social media on whether all wet markets should be closed.
“The origin of the new coronavirus is the wildlife sold illegally in a Wuhan seafood market,” Gao Fu, director of China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told a briefing.
China’s markets, where wild and often poached animals are packed together, have been described as a breeding ground for disease and an incubator for a multitude of viruses to evolve and jump the species barrier to humans.
Wet markets, which are a series of stalls that sell fresh vegetables and fruits, live fish, chickens and other meats, are named after the melting of ice used to preserve goods and the washing of floors to clean blood and entrails.
Conservationists and health experts have long denounced the trade in wildlife for its impact on biodiversity and the potential for spreading disease in markets.
Like nothing even happened


filthy