WUHAN, China (AP) – A World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic on Monday visited two disease control centers that controlled the outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan early on.
WTO investigators arrived in Wuhan, the provincial capital, last month to search for clues and visit hospitals and a seafood market where early cases have been detected.
The team visited the Hubei Provincial Disease Control Center and its city office in Wuhan on Monday, amid strict Chinese control over access to virus information.
China tried to avoid the blame for alleged mistakes in its early response to the outbreak, while promoting alternative theories that the virus originated elsewhere and was even brought to Wuhan from outside the country.
After the visit to the provincial center, team member Peter Daszak told reporters it was a ‘very good meeting, really important’. No other details were given.
The evidence the team puts together will contribute to what is expected to be a years-long search for answers. Determining animal sources of an outbreak requires large amounts of research, including taking animal samples, genetic analysis and epidemiological studies.
In Geneva, WHO officials on Monday pushed back against proposals that China is smaller than the pandemic began.
At a press conference, Maria Van Kerkhove, technical leader of the WHO’s COOID-19, said the team plans to visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology, among others.
“The more details you have on the ground, the more questions you have,” she said. ‘The team will follow the information. They will follow science and continue to ask questions and analyze data. Van Kerkhove said it would be up to the team members to decide what other field visits were needed, although China had to approve the final agenda of the mission.
Dr Michael Ryan, WHO’s emergency chief, said the WTO continues to ask for more information and said anyone with information on how the pandemic started should share it with the organization.
‘We are in the field with experts from ten countries who want to find the answers. If you have answers, or if you think you have answers, please let us know, ‘he said. He dismissed critics who said the mission’s report would be incomplete, saying the team “deserves the support of the international community”.
China has largely restricted domestic shipping through strict testing and contact tracing. Mask worn in public is observed almost universally and locks are regularly imposed on communities and even entire cities where cases are detected. The latest outbreaks were mostly in the icy northeast, with 33 new cases reported nationwide in three provinces on Monday.
Nevertheless, in January, China recorded more than 2,000 new local cases of COVID-19, the highest monthly total since the last phase of the initial outbreak in Wuhan last March. Two people died of the disease in January, the first COVID-19 deaths in China in a few months.
Schools went online and the trip was drastically cut during this month’s lunar New Year holiday, and the government is offering incentives for people to stay seated during the most important time for family gatherings in the big country.