Dr Embarek said that while bats had a natural reservoir for coronaviruses, Wuhan was not a city that was close to these environments and therefore a direct jump from bats to residents in Wuhan was not very likely.
“Therefore we have tried to find what other animals were introduced that could have introduced the virus,” he said.
“The market was dealing primarily with frozen animal products and mainly seafood but there were also vendors selling products from domesticated wildlife and imported products.
“There is the potential to continue to follow this lead and animals that were supplied to the market in frozen and other semi-processed or raw form.”
He said there was no indication of any circulation of the virus in any wild animal species in China.
