The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday said that it has received reassurances from Beijing for international experts to soon travel to China for investigating the animal origins of Covid-19.
“We fully expect and have reassurances from our Chinese government colleagues that the trip to the field… will be facilitated, and as soon as possible,” Michael Ryan, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme told a virtual press briefing. We need to have international teams to join Chinese colleagues to look at the results and outcomes of Chinese studies and verify it on the grounds, Ryan said.
For months, WHO has been working to send an international team of experts including the epidemiologists and animal health specialists to China for helping in the investigation of the animal origin of the novel coronavirus pandemic and how the coronavirus first crossed over to humans.
In July, United Nations (UN) health agency has sent an advance team to Beijing to lay the groundwork to probe the animal origin of virus. But, remained unclear when would larger team of scientists be able to travel to China for identifying the first human cases and their source of infection.
Scientists believed that the deadly spread coronavirus jumped from animals to humans at a market selling meat of exotic animals in the Chinese city, Wuhan where the virus was first detected late last year.