2 WHO experts will work with Chinese scientists to determine the scope and route of the probe. (File)
Geneva:
An advanced team from the World Health Organization (WHO) has traveled to China to organize an investigation into the origins of the new coronavirus that sparked the global pandemic, a spokesperson said on Friday.
The virus is believed to have appeared on a wholesale market in central China’s Wuhan city late last year, which has since been closed since it jumped the animal kingdom barrier to infect. humans.
The two WHO experts in animal health and epidemiology will work with Chinese scientists to determine the scope and route of the investigation, said WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris , in Geneva.
“They are gone, they are in the air now, they are the vanguard who must determine the scope,” she said.
This would involve negotiations on issues such as the composition of the more complete team and the skills required, she added.
“One of the big problems that interests everyone, and that is why we are sending an animal health expert, is to see if he went from one species to a human and from which species he jumped”, said Harris. .
“We know it is very, very similar to the bat virus, but did it go through an intermediate species? This is a question we all need to answer,” she said.
The WHO will have no role in an independent panel, announced Thursday, to examine the global management of the pandemic, said Harris, adding: “From now on, it’s completely out of hand.”
US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said it could have come from a laboratory in Wuhan, although they have presented no evidence of it, and China firmly denies it. Scientists and US intelligence agencies have said it appeared in the wild.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
