WHO team arrive in Wuhan to probe origins of COVID-19 pandemic

Bejing, Jan 14: After a year where coronavirus took place, a team of 10 World Health Organisation (WHO) experts arrived in Wuhan on Thursday to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

The team consists of ten specialists who directly flew from Singapore. Earlier, China's National Health Commission had confirmed the WHO expert team's expected arrival in a statement on its official website on Monday.

 

 

The WHO team will be placed under quarantine in accordance with local containment measures, Mi Feng, a spokesman from the Chinese public health agency said during a press conference on Wednesday.

 

"During this [quarantine] period, Chinese scientists and medical experts will communicate with the international experts through video links," Mi said.

 

On the other hand, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the trip a "critical mission to identify the virus source." However, after supporting China indirectly over its role in the handling of the coronavirus, now Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed his disappointment over Chinese authorities. The disappointment comes after China blocked the entry of the WHO experts to examine the origins of COVID-19.

 

After a cluster of patients exhibiting pneumonia-like symptoms emerged in Wuhan in December 2019, a new coronavirus was identified to be causing the disease, which later became known as COVID-19, and triggered the global pandemic that infected over 90 million people and killed more than 1.9 million.