1 / 13The global death toll from COVID-19 has surpassed 370,0002 / 13The first case of SARS-CoV-2 didn't emerge from a Wuhan wet market, according to experts at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).3 / 13No one believed the story of China's Wuhan market. This led to calls for an international inquiry into the origin of the coronavirus.4 / 13China will cooperate in the investigation of the Coronavirus case. But it should be fair, no one should put pressure, said Chinese President Xi Jinping.5 / 13Until now, China has consistently said that the corona spread from the Wuhan market. But now China has taken a big U-turn.6 / 13Gao Fu, director of China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the corona did not spread from the Wuhan market. The Global Times has published a report about this. 7 / 13‘At first, we assumed the seafood market might have the virus, but now the market is more like a victim,’ said Gao Fu, director of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.8 / 13This was a stunning admission. For the same scientist had unequivocally pointed the finger of blame at Wuhan’s market where wild animals were sold when his country eventually told the world about a deadly new virus in the city.9 / 13The market was shut and cleaned up like a crime scene, in the words of another expert, as global attention focused on the ghastly trade in wild animals.10 / 13Now Gao has admitted no viruses were detected in animal samples. He said they were found only in environmental samples, including sewage – before adding an intriguing aside that ‘the novel coronavirus had existed long before’.11 / 13No-one should doubt the significance of the statement since Gao is not just China’s top epidemiologist but also a member of the country’s top political advisory body.12 / 13Curiously, his revelation followed a television interview with Wang Yanyi, director of Wuhan Institute of Virology, in which she insisted that claims about the disease having leaked from her top-security unit were ‘pure fabrication’.13 / 13Curiously, his revelation followed a television interview with Wang Yanyi, director of Wuhan Institute of Virology, in which she insisted that claims about the disease having leaked from her top-security unit were ‘pure fabrication’.