At a time when the world is still grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, China has reopened its wet markets that is said to be the origin of the deadly coronavirus. Many pictures of this notorious wet market selling bats, cats, dogs and pangolins for human consumption, have gone viral on social media, angering people across the world.Also Read - China Says it is Ready to Help India Procure Ventilators But Ramping up Production Not Easy
The market returned to the business last week after the country reported no new cases of the disease for six consecutive days and many Chinese flocked to the market to buy exotic animals. Also Read - Coronavirus: I Don't Know, China's Numbers Seem Light, Says Donald Trump
As per scientists, the move is a dangerous one as the COVID-19 causing coronavirus first lurked in a bat in China and hopped to another animal, before getting passed on to humans. After the virus broke out, the Chinese government, on March 5 banned the consumption of wild animals, however, the ban was temporary.
Various reports suggest that a 55-year-old man from China’s Hubei province could have been the first person to have contracted Covid-19 through one such ‘wet market’.
“The evidence is highly suggestive that the outbreak is associated with exposures in one seafood market in Wuhan,” the World Health Organisation had said in a statement on January 12.
Several scientists, medical experts and animal rights activists have called for a ban on China’s wet markets but the Asian country seems to have not learnt from its mistakes. The move has attracted widespread criticism and social media users have slammed China:
The reopened markets are under the watchful eyes of guards who are ensuring that no pictures are being taken inside the markets.