Carrie Symonds calls for global ban on 'wet markets'

Carrie Symonds calls for global ban on ‘wet markets’ that sell live and dead wild animals after 200 charities linked coronavirus to China’s wild meat craze

• Carrie Symonds signed a petition calling for an end to Chinese wet markets
• Prime Minister’s pregnant fiancée had to self-isolate after contracting Covid-19
• 32-year-old wrote: ‘This crisis gives us the chance to start doing things better’
• Learn more about how to help people impacted by COVID

Carrie Symonds today revealed she has signed a petition calling for an end to wet markets across the world. 

The Prime Minister’s pregnant fiancée, who was forced to self-isolate after contracting coronavirus, took to social media to share the ‘End the Trade’ petition. 

The 32-year-old wrote: ‘Have signed this petition calling for an end to the global wildlife trade once and for all. Please do consider doing the same. 

‘This crisis gives us the chance to start doing things better. Let this be one of those things.’

The Prime Minister’s pregnant fiancee, who was forced to self-isolate after contracting coronavirus, took to social media to share the ‘End the Trade’ petition

The 32-year-old wrote: ‘Have signed this petition calling for an end to the global wildlife trade once and for all. Please do consider doing the same’

Miss Symonds joins more than 22,000 people who have put their signatures to the petition. 

Earlier this month, Miss Symonds, who is expecting their baby in early summer, revealed she had to separate from Boris Johnson after they both caught the virus

She later admitted there had been ‘very dark’ times as Boris battled coronavirus in hospital. 

On April 12, the couple were pictured together in the back of a car heading for Chequers with their dog Dilyn. 

Earlier this month, more than 200 wildlife groups worldwide issued a call in an open letter, urging countries to shut down wild animal markets such as the one in China where coronavirus is believed to have started.

In their letter to the World Health Organisation, they argued the move would stop future pandemics.

Miss Symonds joins more than 22,000 people who have put their signatures to the petition

Earlier this month, more than 200 wildlife groups worldwide issued a call in an open letter, urging countries to shut down wild animal markets such as the one in China where coronavirus is believed to have started

Fury as China’s wet markets reopen  

More than 90 per cent of the stalls at Wuhan’s biggest wet market have resumed business after the coronavirus lockdown was lifted from the former epicentre, according to reports.

Footage released by state media shows vendors selling live crayfish at the huge Baishazhou market, which occupies 116 acres or the equivalent of 65 football fields.

Over 3,600 shops are now back in business at Baishazhou, which is one of the city’s main food wholesale markets. Officials have banned the trading of live wild animals or livestock to prevent the spread of coronavirus.    

Baishazhou supplies 70 per cent of the city’s vegetables and frozen foods.

Customers and vendors now must have their temperature taken by health workers at the entrances of the market. They must also use an official health app to prove they don’t have the coronavirus before being allowed in, reported local Yangtze Net.

Baishazhou is also the main trading spot of live crayfish in the whole of China.    

On another day in coronavirus news:

• Shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves accused the Government of ignoring offers from British manufacturers to fill the gap.
• Dentists and anaesthetists became the latest groups to warn that they are working without adequate PPE.
• Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospitals and NHS trusts in England, warned that the NHS’s supply of face masks could be jeopardised if the Government begins advising the public to wear them, saying ‘clear evidence’ would be needed before advice was changed.
• The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, Sage, which advises the Government, will reportedly consider the evidence at a meeting today.
• Manjeet Riyat, the first Sikh to work as an A&E consultant in the UK, was named among the latest healthcare workers to die after contracting Covid-19.

The evidence suggests Covid-19 has animal origins, most likely from bats, and may have come from a ‘wet market’ – where live and dead creatures are sold for eating – in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Other pandemics, including Sars and Ebola, have also been linked to viruses spreading from animals to people.

Dr Mark Jones, head of policy at Born Free, one of the charities involved, said: ‘Once Covid-19 is behind us, returning to business as usual cannot be an option.

‘We need to dig deep and reset our fundamental relationship with the natural world, rethink our place in it and treat our planet and all its inhabitants with a great deal more respect, for its sake and for ours.’

The letter also wants the WHO to raise the alarm about the risks posed to human health by the wildlife trade.

The charities back initiatives to find alternative sources of protein for people who survive by eating wild animals.

Dr Jones said markets selling live wild animals were found in many countries and had rapidly expanded.

The trade in wild animals is also a major factor in global declines in wildlife, he added. The letter was co-ordinated by Born Free and its Lion Coalition partners.

It has been backed by other groups including the Bat Conservation Trust and Zoological Society of London.

Last month, a survey by wildlife charity WWF in Hong Kong, Japan, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam found 93 per cent backed official action to eliminate illegal markets.   

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