Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 17) — A team from the World Health Organization is expected to head to China early next year to probe the origin of the coronavirus, an official from WHO Western Pacific Region confirmed Thursday.
“Our understanding at this time is that China is welcoming our international team and their visit and this is anticipated as far as we are aware to happen in early January,” Dr. Babatunde Olowokure, WHO regional emergency director for the Western Pacific Region, said in a virtual press conference.
WHO continues to coordinate with Chinese authorities to “get an overall picture of how the investigation will go,” Olowokure added.
One of the WHO team’s missions is to reportedly look at the data, including human and animal specimens, gathered by researchers from China.
In May, more than 100 countries called on WHO to conduct an “independent evaluation” into the coronavirus pandemic amid criticisms against China for its handling of the early stages of COVID-19, CNN International reported.
Some governments including the United States alleged that the Chinese government intentionally hid information relating to the virus — an accusation which the latter has denied.
The first known patient who showed symptoms of the coronavirus disease was from China’s Wuhan City. The outbreak was believed to have started in a wet market in Wuhan in December 2019. Experts have said an animal may have been transmitted the coronavirus to humans, but it remains unclear which animal transferred the virus to people.
The first confirmed COVID-19 case in the Philippines — a 38-year-old female Chinese national — was also from Wuhan.
Since the emergence of the virus late last year, it has quickly spread across the globe. Globally, over 70 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 and more than 1.6 million individuals died of it, the latest data from the Johns Hopkins University showed.
