Highlights:
- A team from the World Health Organisation to investigate the origin of COVID-19 in China
- China welcomes the WHO team 1 year after the first case which appeared in Wuhan
- Globally, COVID-19 has caused more than 16.5 lakh deaths and infected over 7.45 crore people
One year into the novel Coronavirus induced global pandemic which has caused 16,55,226 deaths and has infected 7,45,34,155 people all around the globe and the question at large remains where did this deadly virus originate and how it initially crossed to humans, which is still a mystery for scientists all around.
On Thursday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that the Chinese government has welcomed its international team of investigators to come to China early next month to aid in the investigation aimed to unravel the origin of COVID-19.
Regional Emergencies Director in Western Pacific at WHO, Babatunde Olowokure said that the health organisation is in talks with China over where and how its team of investigators will travel within the country, during a press conference.
During the streamed news conference, Olowokure said, “WHO continues to contact China and to discuss the international team and the places they visit,” and added, “Our understanding at this time is that China is welcoming the international team and their visit…This is anticipated, as far as we are aware, to happen in early January”.
Referring to the ongoing discussion with Beijing over the trip of WHO’s team, Olowokure said, “These are of course important for us and to get an overall picture of how the investigation will go,” at the press meet.
On Wednesday, an official from the World Health Organisation said that the international mission which is being led by the global health body was expected to go to China in the first week of January with the purpose of investigating the origins of the novel Coronavirus which caused the global pandemic.
One year ago, in December 2019, the first case of COVID-19 came to light in Wuhan, China and since then the deadly virus has infected more than 7.4 crore people and caused over 16 lakh casualties around the globe.
Since months now the World Health Organisation has been working to send a team which will consist of 10 international experts including epidemiologists and animal health specialists to China.
In the beginning, the scientists were inclined to believe that the deadly virus transmitted from animals to humans at the seafood market which sold meat of exotic animals, in the city of Wuhan.
However, experts now think that the market may not have been the place of origin of the novel Coronavirus but only a place where it was amplified.
Though it is widely believed that this virus came from bats, but it remains a mystery at large which animal acted as the intermediate host that transmitted it from bats to humans.
The President of the United States of America (USA) has openly accused of China to have hidden the outbreak’s extent and has called for a “transparent” probe into the matter from WHO and criticised its terms, which allowed the Chinese scientists to do the first phase of preliminary research. Donald Trump, President of the US even called COVID-19 the China virus.