A total of 241 organizations from around the world have written a letter to the World Health Organization to ban wet markets and "to publicly and unequivocally state the proven link between these markets and serious threats to human health".

World Health Day was marked on Tuesday.

Although the origins and nature of the COVID-19 virus are still unknown, scientists suspect it originated in a market in Wuhan, China, and passed to humans from bats via another species, possibly a pangolin.

"In line with its stated mission to serve public health at all times, we urge the WHO to recommend that governments worldwide permanently ban live wildlife markets and the use of wildlife in traditional medicine. This decisive action, well within the WHO's mandate, would be an impactful first step in adopting a highly precautionary approach to wildlife trade that poses a risk to human health," the letter says.