The WHO said that the Chinese authorities had determined that the epidemic was caused by a coronavirus.
New Delhi:
China fears news of new coronavirus outbreak in China, WHO (World Health Organization) team to visit the country next week to investigate the origins and spread of the virus to the man.
The visit will take place more than six months after the WHO country office in China received a statement from the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission on cases of “viral pneumonia”. WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke in January of an agreement with China to send a team of international experts “as soon as possible” to work towards a better understanding of the epidemic .
COVID-19 has killed more than 500,000 people worldwide and cases and deaths are increasing by the day.
In an exclusive interview with ANI, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, WHO, said that an “in-depth investigation” should be conducted into the origins of the virus.
She said that WHO worked with the Chinese government for the visit. “A team will travel to China next week to investigate the origins of the virus,” said Dr. Soumya Swaminathan at ANI.
“What is needed now is a good survey before December to find out where and how it went from animal to man. Was there an intermediate animal or not or did it go directly from bats to humans, which is also possible? Bats have been implicated in other viral diseases – Nipah for example. It is possible that he came directly. It is also possible that there was an intermediate type animal in the case of SARS. This further investigation has yet to be carried out, “she said.
Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said the Chinese government reported an epidemic of “typical cases of pneumonia” in Wuhan on December 31.
“Our WHO country office in China retrieved it and on January 1, WHO activated its international mechanisms, which we do under international health regulations whenever a new signal is reported. It is passed on to everyone so the whole world knows, “she said.
Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said the sequences show that the virus causing COVID-19 is very similar to the bat virus.
“We don’t know more than that in the sense of where and how it originated. We know from viral sequences that it is very similar to bat viruses. Many studies have been carried out in Southeast Asia to show that bats have many of the coronaviruses. There are more than 500 types of coronavirus. There are also previous studies showing that people living in southern China and even in other countries in Southeast Asia have antibodies to the coronaviruses, “she said.
The pandemic has reached more than 10 million cases and killed more than 500,000 people worldwide.
On January 29, the Director-General of WHO spoke of his agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping that the organization would lead a team of international experts to China “as soon as possible” to work with the government to improve understanding the epidemic and guiding global response efforts.
On December 31 of last year, the WHO country office in China took a press release from the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission on its website about “viral pneumonia” cases in Wuhan. The following day, WHO asked the Chinese authorities for information on the group of atypical pneumonia cases reported in Wuhan.
WHO reported on January 9 that Chinese authorities had determined that the epidemic was caused by a new coronavirus. The organization announced on February 11 that the disease caused by the new coronavirus would be called COVID-19.
China has been reported to have delayed information and warnings about the new coronavirus, which could have helped contain its spread in the early days.
