WHO experts departing from Wuhan after they research the outbreak of the virus an international team of World Health Organization (WHO) scientists, working with experts in China, have been researching how the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Investigations were conducted mainly focusing on the Huanan wet market in Wuhan, which was linked to a cluster of initial cases. It is still supposed to have experienced one of the first clusters of cases, but China's National Health Commission spokesperson Liang Wannian said the transmission was already happening in other areas of Wuhan at that time.

He added, “We can also agree we have found evidence of a wider circulation of the virus in December. It was not just a cluster outbreak in Wuhan markets but it was also circulated outside of the markets.”

However, he added there was no evidence that COVID was spreading in Wuhan before December 2019, when the first cases were reported, after officials looked at research samples, pharmaceutical sales, and hospital records quoting "No evidence is found of an outbreak related to the virus in the city prior to 2019"

Giving an update on their findings the day before they depart China, Peter Ben Embarek from the WHO delegation said the picture they had of the situation before their investigation had not changed dramatically.

The evidence so far suggests the novel coronavirus may have transmitted from intermediary hosts to humans, but the team told a news conference it is not yet sure exactly which animals it came from or where this occurred. Thus, future investigations will no longer focus on laboratory incidents as the potential outbreak of the virus.