China's top legislative committee on Monday began deliberating a proposal to ban all trade and consumption of wild animals, a practice believed responsible for the country's deadly coronavirus outbreak.
The official Xinhua news agency said the proposal was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC). "It aims to completely ban the eating of wild animals and crack down on illegal wildlife trade," it said. The report added that the measure was aimed at "safeguarding public health and ecological security".
Chinese health officials have said the virus likely emerged from a market in the central city of Wuhan that sold wild animals as food. Late last month after the epidemic began exploding across the country, China ordered a temporary ban "until the national epidemic situation is over".
The new coronavirus has killed 2,592 people in China, infected some 77,000 so far and paralysed its economy. It has spread to at least two dozen countries, infecting 1,500 people and killing nearly 30. It was not clear when a decision would be made on the proposed ban, which is likely to face scepticism.
China instituted a similar temporary ban after the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus killed hundreds of people in China and Hong Kong in 2002-03 and was also traced to wild-animal consumption.
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