Wuhan wet market closes amid pneumonia outbreak

A Central China wet market known for seafood was closed on Wednesday amid a pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, according to the Wuhan Evening News.

A notice posted outside the Huanan Seafood Market market said that according to regulations for public health emergencies, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission's Hanjiang district bureau decided to suspend the seafood market's operation to improve its environment and sanitation. The opening time will be further notified. 

The report said market vendors were cooperative and busy moving out. The city's health commission recently received reports from some medical institutions that patients infected with viral pneumonia worked in a local seafood market.

On Tuesday morning, videos uploaded to the internet showed masked, white-clad medical workers spraying sanitizer in the market. According to Red Star News, a netizen posted on Weibo that he or she has seen wild chickens, snakes and marmots killed for sale in the market. 

"In addition to the seafood, the market also sold live cats, dogs, snakes and marmots," the netizen said. "There was even a signboard saying that they have live monkeys and deer for sale."

Twenty-seven people infected with viral pneumonia have been quarantined in  Hubei's provincial capital of Wuhan, and those who were in close contact with them are being watched closely as the local health authority investigates the cause of the infection, according to China Daily reports on Tuesday. 

Seven of the infected are in critical condition, while the others are "stable" with "controllable" symptoms, according to a media release from the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission on Tuesday.