WUHAN, China (AP) – World Health Organization investigators looking for clues to the origin of the coronavirus in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, said the Chinese party had provided a high level of cooperation, but warned of immediate results from the expect to visit.
“I still say we need to be realistic, a short mission like this will not have all the answers, but it will help advance the understanding of the #virusorigin #wuhan,” said Hung Nguyen-Viet, co-leader of Animal and Human Health Program of the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, said in a tweet on Thursday.
In an earlier tweet, zoologist and team member Peter Daszak praised Wednesday’s meetings with staff at the key Wuhan Institute of Virology, including deputy director Shi Zhengli, a virologist who worked with Daszak to trace the origins of SARS. which originated in China. led to the outbreak of 2003.
An extremely important meeting today with staff at WIV, including Dr Shi Zhengli. Frank, open discussion. Key questions asked and answered. “, Daszak tweeted.
The team met for about two hours on Thursday with managers and residents at Jiangxinyuan Community Administrative Center in Hanyang District, Wuhan. No details were given.
Official statistics show that last year there were at least 16 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the community among nearly 10,000 people who lived there when the virus broke out.
Earlier, Daszak tweeted images from media outside the virology institute, saying: “He thanks the press for their patience and interest in making this news known to the world. The work is moving forward and we look forward to talking about the results as soon as possible. ”
The Wuhan Institute of Virology has collected extensive virus samples, leading to unproven allegations that it may have caused the original outbreak by leaking the virus into the surrounding community. China has vehemently denied the possibility, citing unproven theories that the virus originated elsewhere.
Together with the institute, the WTO team, which includes experts from ten countries, visited hospitals, research institutes, a traditional market linked to the outbreak and other sites.
Team members met with institute researchers and management, experts, suppliers, residents and media representatives, China National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng told reporters during a briefing on Thursday.
It is likely to take years and multiple investigations in many parts of the world to confirm the origin of the virus due to the extensive research, including taking animal samples, genetic analysis and epidemiological studies needed to determine the animal reservoir of an outbreak. to determine. One possibility is that a poacher would have transmitted the virus to traders who transported it to Wuhan, but this has yet to be proven.
The first groups of COVID-19 were detected in Wuhan in late 2019, leading the government to place the 11 million city under a strict 76-day closure. China has since reported more than 89,000 cases and 4,600 deaths – most of them in Wuhan – with new cases concentrated largely in the northeast and local closures and travel restrictions being put in place to curb outbreaks.
New cases of local dispatch fell to just 17 on Thursday when the Chinese heeded calls from the government to skip family visits and stay seated later this month during the lunar New Year holiday.
China also went ahead with a plan to vaccinate 50 million people for COVID-19 by the middle of this month. As of Wednesday, more than 31 million doses had been administered, Mi told reporters.