An international group of
experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) will arrive in China on
14th January, to probe the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, ending
the uncertainty and delay which drew sharp criticism from the world
health body. The state news agency, quoting China's National Health
Commission said on Monday that an expert team from the WHO will conduct a
field visit to China this coming Thursday. China's National Health
Commission said in a brief statement that the WHO team would work with
Chinese scientists during the trip, without giving further details.
There is no announcement as of now on the itinerary of the visiting
team, nor is there any confirmation on the quarantine requirements. It
has been more than a year since the first official case of the novel
Coronavirus was announced in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
On January 9, Zeng Yixin, the deputy head of the National Health
Commission (NHC) told the media that the exact time of the team’s
arrival in Wuhan was still under negotiations. China and the WHO have
reached a consensus on specific arrangements of the investigation with
four video conferences, Zeng said. Once the WHO experts complete their
procedures and finalise the schedule, Chinese experts will go to Wuhan
with them to conduct the investigation, Zeng said. Chinese foreign
ministry without giving any further details said that China always
supported global cooperation on origin tracing of COVID-19.
The team’s visit to China, especially to Wuhan has become a bone of
contention as Beijing, which questions the widely-held view about the
virus’ origins in Wuhan, had delayed granting permission to the
10-member team of experts. The much-awaited confirmation came after WHO
chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is often accused of being
pro-China, in a rare rebuke, had expressed disappointment last week over
Beijing not granting the necessary permissions for the expert team's
arrival. Tedros said he made it clear that the mission was a priority
for the UN health agency and it was eager to get it "underway as soon as
possible". The delay by China to finalize the visit fueled concerns
that Beijing was obstructing global efforts to trace the origins of
COVID-19. Reacting to Tedros’ comments, Chinese Foreign Ministry last
week said that there might be some misunderstanding on this.
China has been trying to change the narrative that the deadly outbreak
broke out in a wet market in Wuhan where live exotic wild species were
sold, propagating many theories suggesting the origin of the virus in
other countries. The market remained closed and sealed since early last
year. In May last year, the World Health Assembly (WHA) - the governing
body of the 194-member states of the WHO - approved a resolution to set
up an independent inquiry to conduct an "impartial, independent and
comprehensive evaluation" of the international response, as well as that
of the WHO. It also asked the WHO to investigate the "source of the
virus and the route of introduction to the human population.
{ With input from news agency language)
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