Virus renews safety concerns about slaughtering wild animals

A medical worker is seen at the intensive care unit (ICU) of Jinyintan hospital in Wuhan, the epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak, in Hubei province, China, on Friday (Feb 14). With more than 60 million people under lockdown in more than a dozen Chinese cities, the new outbreak is prompting calls to permanently ban the sale of wildlife. - China Daily/ANN

BEIJING: China cracked down on the sale of exotic species after an outbreak of a new virus in 2002 was linked to markets selling live animals. The germ turned out to be a coronavirus that caused SARS.

The ban was later lifted, and the animals reappeared. Now another coronavirus is spreading through China, so far killing 1,380 people and sickening more than 64,000 - eight times the number sickened by SARS.