WHO EXPERTS TO PROBE COVID-19 ORIGINS WILL ARRIVE ON THURSDAY

Mon 11 January 2021:

Chinese authorities have said a World Health Organization (WHO) team of international experts tasked with investigating the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic will arrive in China on Thursday.

Lack of authorisation from Beijing had delayed the arrival of the 10-strong team on a long-awaited mission to investigate early infections, in what China’s foreign ministry called a “misunderstanding.”

A 10-member team of international experts is due in Wuhan city, where the virus was first reported in December 2019. It has since spread across the globe, infecting over 90 million people and costing more than 1.9 million lives.

China’s National Health Commission said the WHO experts would arrive on Thursday and “cooperate with Chinese experts to investigate the origin of COVID-19,” the Chinese Global Times daily reported.

Last week, Beijing had said it was still negotiating with the WHO about the visit.

“There has never been any problem in cooperation between China and the WHO. It’s not just a visa issue, the two sides are in close communication on specific dates and arrangements for the team’s China visit,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a press conference on Wednesday.

The statement came a day after WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed his dismay over China not allowing members of the team to enter the country for the on-site probe.

Photo: A team of novel coronavirus pneumonia experts from China and the World Health Organization visit the Guanggu branch of Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei province, Feb 23, 2020. [Photo by Zhu Xingxin/chinadaily.com.cn]