WHO Team to Probe Covid-19 Origins in China

KOMPAS.com – A team from the World Health Organization (WHO) is scheduled to arrive in China Thursday to investigate the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It was not immediately clear whether the team would be traveling to the central Chinese city of Wuhan where coronavirus was first detected in late 2019.

Negotiations for the visit have long been underway.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last week expressed disappointment over the mission being delayed.

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He said members of the international scientific team had already started their journey from their home countries to China as part of an arrangement between the WHO and Beijing when China informed the organization it was not ready for their arrival.

China’s Government has strictly controlled all research at home into the origins of the virus, while state-owned media have played up fringe theories that suggest the virus could have originated elsewhere.

The culture of secrecy is believed to have delayed warnings about the pandemic, blocked the sharing of information with the WHO and hampered early testing.

Some countries have called for an investigation into the origins of the virus, prompting angry responses from Beijing.

After Tedros’ statement, China’s Foreign Ministry said the country was open to a visit by WHO experts, but it was still working on “necessary procedures and relevant concrete plans.”
China’s disease experts were busy with multiple small-scale virus clusters and outbreaks that had been reported in the past couple of weeks, ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.