SINGAPORE (Reuters). Apparently, the first COVID-19 victim was a Chinese vendor, Wuhan. He did not appear to be an accountant but his case was a contributing factor to speculations that the virus might have leaked into a laboratory.

It is still unknown where the SARS-CoV-2 virus caused COVID-19, and it remains an important source of tension between China (and the United States).

China and WHO jointly conducted a joint study this year to eliminate the possibility that COVID-19 came from a lab. The WHO said that COVID-19 infects humans naturally via wildlife trade, which is the most probable hypothesis.

WHO experts and Chinese scientists spent 4 weeks around Wuhan, China. They concluded in March in a joint report that SARS-CoV-2 was probably transmitted by bats. However further investigation is needed.

It was thought that the accountant had COVID-19 and his symptoms first appeared Dec. 16. This is several days after the original date, according to Michael Worobey (head of ecology/evolutionary biology at Arizona University), in a study published in Science.

This confusion resulted from a problem with his teeth that he experienced on December 8.

According to the study, “His symptom onset was after multiple Huanan Market workers had experienced the same symptoms. A female fish vendor at the market is the first known victim with the illness having onset around 11 December.”

According to it, most of the early cases of symptoms could be linked to the market. It was specifically in the west where the raccoon dog were kept. The evidence provided strong support for the existence of an animal market as the source of the pandemic.

A new expert panel was proposed by the WHO last month to study the cause of the coronavirus.