A World Health Organisation-led team of experts investigating the origins of Covid-19 in the central Chinese city of Wuhan is expected to visit Huanan market later today, a wholesale seafood centre where the new coronavirus was initially detected.

Public access to the market — now barricaded with guards on round-the-clock duty — has been severely restricted since it was shut at the beginning of last year. Before its closure, it was a bustling market comprising hundreds of stalls divided into sections for meat, seafood and vegetables.

Some Chinese diplomats and state media have said they believe the market is not the origin, and have thrown support behind theories that the virus potentially originated in another country.