GENEVA/WUHAN, Feb 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A World Health Organization-led team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday visited the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in China’s central region of Hubei, where the outbreak emerged in late 2019.
The group of independent experts spent about 4-1/2 hours on its longest site visit since completing two weeks of quarantine on Thursday, and did not speak to waiting journalists.
WHO official in Geneva said that they had held “very good discussions” with their Chinese counterparts.
The WHO, which has sought to manage expectations for the mission, has said its members would be limited to visits organised by their Chinese hosts and have no contact with community members, because of health curbs.
The group has so far also visited hospitals where early cases were detected, markets, and an exhibition on the battle with the outbreak in the provincial capital of Wuhan.
“The visits that they have provide detailed information and all of this detailed information requires analysis which is ongoing between the international team and the Chinese counterparts. And all of that detailed analysis leads to more and more questions,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead on COVID-19, told a Geneva news conference on Monday evening.
“Their focus is on the early cases they are having very good discussions around that.”
Mike Ryan, WHO’s top emergency official, said: “We continue to ask the questions, we continue to push for more data … It’s a detective story and you go through again and you answer more questions.”
No full itinerary for the group’s field work has been announced, and journalists covering the tightly controlled visit have been kept at a distance from team members.
On Sunday, the experts visited the Huanan seafood market linked to initial infections, and the Baishazhou wholesale food market, where a loudspeaker repeatedly announced that the sale of imported cold chain products was banned at the market. — NNN-AGENCIES
