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 'Cold chain' refers to the transport and trade of frozen food. China
has pushed the idea that the virus can be transmitted by frozen food
and has repeatedly announced findings of coronavirus traces on
imported food packaging.
However, Peter Ben Embarek, a WHO specialist in animal diseases who
leads the independent group of experts, also said the team's nearly
month-long investigation in Wuhan had not dramatically changed the
picture of the outbreak.
"We know the virus can survive in conditions that are found in these
cold, frozen environments, but we don't really understand if the
virus can transmit to humans" or under which conditions, he told the
briefing.
Embarek said it would be worthwhile to explore whether a frozen wild
animal in a market setting with the right conditions could be
conducive to rapid spread of the virus.
He said that work to identify the origins of the coronavirus points
to a natural reservoir in bats, but it is unlikely that they were in
Wuhan, the city where the outbreak was first identified in late
2019.
He also said investigators were looking at whether the virus was
circulating earlier than first thought, and that blood samples
needed to be found to conduct further research.
The possibility that the virus leaked from a lab - another
hypothesis - was extremely unlikely and did not require further
study, Embarek told the briefing.
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 The team arrived in Wuhan on
Jan. 14 and after two weeks of quarantine,
visited key sites including the Huanan seafood
market, the location of the first known cluster
of infections, as well as the Wuhan Institute of
Virology, which has been involved in coronavirus
research. Members of the team
have sought to rein in expectations about the mission, with
zoologist Peter Daszak telling Reuters last week that one of their
aims was to "identify the next steps to fill in the gaps".
Another team member, infectious disease expert Dominic Dwyer, said
it would probably take years to fully understand the origins of
COVID-19.
The United States said China needed to be more open when it comes to
sharing data and samples as well as allowing access to patients,
medical staff and lab workers. Beijing subsequently accused
Washington of politicizing a scientific mission.
(Reporting by Josh Horwitz in Wuhan and David Stanway in Shanghai;
Additional reporting by Stepahnie Nebehay in Geneva.; Writing by
Tony Munroe; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Gareth Jones and Nick
Macfie)
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