The World Health Organization has called for a worldwide ban on live animals in food markets.
The Daily Mail reports that this comes after a joint study by WHO and health officials in China into the origins of Covid, which claims that so-called wet markets in Wuhan were a likely source of the current pandemic.
Per The Mail, a spokesperson for WHO stated: "The guidance calls on countries to suspend the sale of captured live wild mammals in food markets as an emergency measure.
"Animals, particularly wild animals, are the source of more than 70% of all emerging infectious diseases in humans, many of which are caused by novel viruses. Wild mammals, in particular, pose a risk for the emergence of new diseases."
"Traditional markets, where live animals are held, slaughtered, and dressed, pose a particular risk for pathogen transmission to workers and customers alike."
WHO has now called for governments to close sections of food markets selling live wild mammals unless adequate risk assessments were in place.
Yet, despite its theorizing that the origins of the virus lay in China, the report has not entirely rejected the possibility that the original case of Covid infection took place overseas and that the infected animal was then imported into China.
However, the report has been criticized by some for seeming to discount the possibility that Covid-19 was leaked from a laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Tedros Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO, stated back in March:
"This [theory] requires further investigation, potentially with additional missions involving specialist experts, which I am ready to deploy."
Meanwhile, there have been calls from the Biden administration for a more rigorous investigation into the origins of the virus.
On Sunday, April 11, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken accused the Chinese government of not being transparent enough with information on the virus during the early stages of the pandemic.
The Guardian reports that President Joe Biden stated: "Blinken said it was important to reach a more conclusive accounting of how the pandemic began.
"We need to do that precisely so we fully understand what happened, in order to have the best shot possible preventing it from happening again. That’s why we need to get to the bottom of this."