WHO hopes new COVID-19 panel can find coronavirus origins – CBC
World Health Organization calls on China to co-operate with latest investigation
Oct 13, 2021
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday its newly formed advisory group on dangerous pathogens may be “our last chance” to determine the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 — the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 — and called for co-operation from China.
The first human cases of COVID-19 were reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. China has repeatedly dismissed theories that the virus leaked from one of its laboratories and has said no more visits are needed.
A WHO-led team spent four weeks in and around Wuhan earlier this year with Chinese scientists, and said in a joint report in March that the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal but further research was needed.
WHO hopes China will co-operate
WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that the investigation was hampered by a dearth of raw data pertaining to the first days of the outbreak’s spread and has called for lab audits.
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/who-advisory-group-coronavirus-origins-1.6209449
