Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market
The Wuhan Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market (Chinese: 武汉华南海鲜批发市场), simply known as the Huanan Seafood Market (Huanan means 'South China'), was a live animal and seafood market in Jianghan District, Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, in Central China. The market opened on 19 June 2002.
Outside the market in March 2020, after its closure | |
| Location | Jianghan, Wuhan, Hubei, China |
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| Coordinates | 30.6196°N 114.2576°E |
| Opening date | 19 June 2002 |
| Closing date | 1 January 2020 |
| Owner | unknown |
| Number of tenants | 1,000+ [before closing] |
| Total retail floor area | 50,000 m2 (540,000 sq ft) |
| Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market | |||||||
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| Simplified Chinese | 武汉华南海鲜批发市场 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 武漢華南海鮮批發市場 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | Wuhan South China Seafood Wholesale Market | ||||||
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The market became widely known worldwide after being identified by some sources as the epicenter site of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the resulting pandemic. It is still one of the most likely points of origin for the disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) was notified on 31 December 2019 about an outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan. Of the initial 41 people hospitalized with "pneumonia", who were officially identified as having laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, by 2 January 2020, two-thirds were exposed to the market.
The market was closed permanently on 1 January 2020 for sanitary procedures and disinfection. Thirty-three out of 585 environmental samples (5.6%) obtained from the market indicated evidence of COVID-19 outbreak, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.