Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday urged the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations to act against China’s wet markets, like the one where the deadly Coronavirus is thought to have originated, as they pose “great risks” to the health and wellbeing of the rest of the world.

A wet market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan is believed to be the source of the Coronavirus pandemic that began in December last year, crossing from animals to humans.

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This comes as China’s dangerous wet markets selling bats, pangolins and dogs for human consumption have reportedly reopened with the easing of the lockdown after over three months.

“The markets have gone back to operating in exactly the same way as they did before coronavirus,” a report in The Mail on Sunday read.

It is reported that the COVID-19 virus was first contracted by a 55-year-old man from Hubei from a similar wet market.

The alleged reopening of the wet markets come even as the WHO has said that the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over in Asia.

Meanwhile, Republican senator Lindsey Graham has also urged the World Health Organization (WHO) to push for stricter controls on China’s animal trade.

The number of cases from the virus has crossed one million worldwide and more than 51,000 deaths have been reported across more than 200 countries and territories, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally.

(With agency inputs)