An advanced team of two members made up of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) left for China.
An advanced team of two members made up of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) traveled to China to organize an investigation into the origins of the new coronavirus behind a pandemic that killed more than 550,000 people in the world, the United Nations agency announced on Friday.
The virus is said to have appeared on a wholesale market in central China’s Wuhan city late last year after it jumped the animal kingdom barrier to infect humans.
The two WHO experts, animal health and epidemiology experts, will work with Chinese scientists to determine the scope and route of the investigation, said WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris, refusing to name them.
“We know it is very, very similar to the bat virus, but has it gone through an intermediate species? This is a question we all need to answer,” Harris said in a point. Press.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said later at a press conference: “Two WHO experts are currently on their way to China to meet with scientific colleagues and to learn about the progress made. in understanding the animal reservoir for COVID-19 and how the disease jumped between animals and humans. “
He added: “This will help lay the foundation for the international mission led by WHO in the origins.”
COVID-19 is the respiratory disease caused by the virus.
The United States, WHO’s largest donor, this week notified the agency that it is withdrawing in a year after accusing it of being too close to China and not doing enough to question Beijing’s actions at the start of the crisis.
“We view the scientific investigation as a necessary step to have a complete and transparent understanding of how this virus has spread around the world,” said Andrew Bremberg, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, in a statement to Reuters.
“We hope the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) will provide the team of scientists with full access to data, samples and localities, and we look forward to its timely report,” said Bremberg.
US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the pathogen could come from a laboratory in Wuhan, although they have presented no evidence of it, and China has denied 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.)
