User:Optakeover/Draft:Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market

 Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market (Simplified Chinese: 武汉华南海鲜批发市场) is a live animal and seafood market in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. The market gained media attention after preliminary investigations by the World Health Organization linked the 2019–20 coronavirus outbreak to people who have visited or worked at the market.

Operations
Occupying over 50,000 square meters and containing over 1,000 tenants, it is the largest seafood wholesale market in Wuhan and Central China.

Items sold
According to media reports, these were the items that were sold at the market:


 * Herbs
 * Emmental cheese
 * Bats
 * Rats
 * Wolf puppies
 * Peacocks
 * Porcupines
 * Crocodiles
 * Civets
 * Chickens
 * Pheasants
 * Marmots
 * Venomous snakes
 * Spotted deer
 * Live foxes
 * Giant salamanders
 * Camel meat
 * Organs of rabbits

Wuhan Coronavirus Outbreak
In December 2019, an outbreak of a cluster of pneumonia cases occured in Wuhan. Preliminary investigation found most of the cases of pneumonia were linked to visitors and tenants working at the market.

The virus responsible for the pneumonia cluster was eventually identified as a coronavirus after it was isolated in patient. As coronaviruses mainly circulate among animals and the link between the pneumonia outbreak and the market being established, it was suspected the virus may have been of an animal source zoonosis, especially because of the variety of animals sold at the market. It was suggested that snakes or bats may have the source of the virus. It was eventually announced that the virus is contagious between humans.

Closure
On January 1, 2020, In response to the initial outbreak of the pneumonia cluster, health authorities closed the market on as a precaution.