The very earliest compositor’s case of the COVID-19 pandemic have been pinpointed – vindicating one of the early possibility about where the virus came from – by a team of 18 scientist , hail from half a dozen country .

In a new article , published in the journalScience , researchers identify the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan , China , as the likeliest root of the irruption . This aligns with some of the earliest report of the pandemic , quickly dismissed by Chinese functionary , which linked the then - novel coronavirus with the sales agreement of live animal , such as bats , at the food market .

“ These are the most compelling and most elaborated studies of what happened in Wuhan in the early stages of what would become the COVID-19 pandemic , ” Stephen Goldstein , a postdoctoral scientist in the section of Human Genetics at the University of Utah , and conscientious objector - writer of the report , said in astatement .

“ We have convincingly shown that the wild animal sales at the Huanan Market in Wuhan are implicate in the first human cases of the disease . ”

The squad ’s first piece of grounds for the finding come from a cogitation , originally published in early 2021by the World Health Organization ( WHO ) , on some of the very first report cases of COVID-19 . Of the 174 patient role base by the WHO , the investigator were able to reverse - engineer the probable homes and workplaces of 155 .

A clean pattern emerged . “ The fix of the Huanan market lies within the highest density form that comprise 1 percent of the probability mass , ” explains the paper .

“ The clump of COVID-19 cases in December around the Huanan securities industry … contrast with the pattern of widely dispersed case across Wuhan by early January through mid - February 2020 , ” the author indicate out . “ By January and February many of the sick who sought help resided in highly populated area of the city , and particularly in surface area with a eminent density of erstwhile mass . ”

All of that first mathematical group of patients lived closer to the Market than would be expected from a random sample of the population – and for vitrine without a hump link to the Market , that effect was even stiff .

“ The observance that a substantial dimension of former font had no know epidemiologic linkup had antecedently been used as an argument against a Huanan market epicentre of the pandemic , ” take down the writer . “ However , this grouping of cases resided significantly closer to the market than those who exercise there , indicating that they had been unwrap to the virus at , or near , the Huanan marketplace . ”

But that ’s not the only clue they found . Since the early days of COVID-19 , there have been multiple lineages circulating – we ’re currentlyall the way up toOmicron BA.5 , but back in 2019 there were onlyA and B.

For a farseeing time , the paper explains , only lineage B was have it off to have been present at the Market – but newer research has called that into interrogation , withone preprintfrom this class support the presence of lineage A at the site .

If , as some have suggest , the Huanan market was simply an early super - spreader event for a computer virus that had uprise elsewhere , it would be very surprising to see both lineages circulating like this . or else , it ’s much more likely that both lineages originated independently at the food market , with the first case potentially pass off as early as November 2019 , the research worker say .

Add this to the resolution of spatial analyses within the market , and it all suggest that the seed of the COVID-19 pandemic was most likely one or more of the small grouping of stall in the southwest recession of Huanan Market – the part where traders sell live mammals , including raccoon dogs , grunter badger , and cerise foxes , and where multiple positive sampling from the stall and nearby drain system were contain .

“ The pattern of COVID-19 cases reported for the Huanan market , with the earliest pillow slip in the same part of the food market as the wildlife sales and evidence of at least two initiation , resembles the multiple cross - species transmissions of SARS - CoV-2 subsequently observed during the pandemic from animals to mankind on mink farm , and from infected hamsters to humans in the favored trade , ” the investigator spell .

“ The alive animal patronage and springy animate being markets are a vernacular root in computer virus spillover events , with markets such as the Huanan market sell live mammals being in the highest risk of infection category , ” they continue . “ To reduce the risk of succeeding pandemics we must understand , and then limit , the route and opportunity for computer virus spillover . ”