Coronavirus has claimed the lives of at least 154,000 victims, leading scientists to race to learn about the source of the deadly disease. A study by a team of Chinese scientists indicates coronavirus did not actually originate at a seafood market in the central China city of Wuhan as widely reported.

Consequently, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was instead imported from elsewhere, researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Institute for Brain Research have reported.

The team, led by Dr Yu Wenbin, sequenced the genomic data of 93 SARS-CoV-2 samples provided by 12 countries in an attempt to hunt the source of the infection and understand how it spreads.

They discovered while the virus had spread rapidly within the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, there had also been had two major population expansions on December 8 and January 6.

According to the study, published on the institute’s website in February, analysis indicates the coronavirus was actually introduced from outside the market.

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