Photo of a stall taken after outbreak discovered showing a storefront (3rd left) covering word “(wild)” in its name. (Photo from Twitter user, muyixiao)

China reopened its food markets that sell live animals after the country declared ‘victory’ over the COVID-19 virus, Daily Mail reported on 28 March.
The country has earlier temporarily banned the trade of live animals at food markets in January, following reports on the potential links of wildlife animals and the new coronavirus (COVID-19). But now that China has defeated the virus, the food markets have resumed business again.
On 28 March, China began to lift a two-month lockdown on the Chinese city of Wuhan – where the COVID-19 virus first emerged – after the country declared its victory against the virus outbreak, Reuters reported.
Director of the National Health Commission, Ma Xiaowei said that the country had contained the virus, with Wuhan having about 63,000 COVID-19 patients being discharged.
Following that, a Daily Mail correspondent photographed a medicine seller who resumed its business with a billboard advertising bats, scorpions, and other animals.
‘Everyone here believes the outbreak is over and there’s nothing to worry about anymore. It’s just a foreign problem now as far as they are concerned,’ said one of the Daily Mail’s China-based correspondents.

Another correspondent in Dongguan told Daily Mail that the markets have resumed business the same way as they did before the virus outbreak.
“The only difference is that security guards try to stop anyone taking pictures which would never have happened before,” the correspondent said.
Meanwhile, Wuhan reported one imported case earlier today (1 April) after having no new cases for seven consecutive days, Xinhua reported.
However, some residents and analysts seem to doubt the virus transmission rate reported by officials and concerned that the Chinese government only prioritizes restarting the economy and not containing the virus, The Guardian reported on 23 March.
“I am really worried that there are still many asymptomatic infected people inside Wuhan. As soon as everyone goes back to work, everyone will be infected,” a citizen named Wang told The Guardian.
According to RHTK’s report on 23 March, residents said patients have been turned away by the hospitals despite showing symptoms of the COVID-19 disease.
Wuhan resident, Wan, said that his 70-year-old mother suffered from pneumonia again after being discharged from the hospital and now has been placed under isolation at a hotel. He added that no hospitals wanted to admit her as she was not tested positive for the virus.
Another resident, Zhang Yi indicated that it is a political need to ensure mainland authorities claim there have been no new local cases of the virus, adding that he received messages from officials showing that there were still people with the disease in Wuhan.
“Whether the official figure is accurate or not, I think you will know. This is a political treatment, not medical treatment,” he noted.

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