-Announces participation in global COVID origins-tracing
BEIJING: China calls on all parties to respect science and the opinions and conclusions of scientists, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Wednesday, following the release of a World Health Organization (WHO) report on COVID-19 origins that found it’s extremely unlikely the virus escaped from Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The WHO said work could also be carried out in laboratories around the world if further evidence was available and needed, Hua noted, adding that China hopes that other relevant countries will cooperate with the WHO in the same open and transparent manner as China has done.
Separately, based on the study results in China, COVID-19 origins tracing work will be further carried out on a global scale in a variety of ways and channels, and Chinese experts will continue to actively participate in the research under a global framework led by the WHO, Liang Wannian, team leader of the Chinese side of the WHO-China joint expert team which conducted research in Wuhan, said at a press conference on Wednesday.
The WHO on Tuesday released a report on their joint study with Chinese experts in Wuhan on COVID-19 origins-tracing. The report represents the “China section” of the global origins-tracing research, Liang said at a press conference on Wednesday.
“China is the first country to report a COVID-19 case, so the global origins-tracing work was first carried out in China,” Liang said, noting that, although the WHO-China joint team finished its work in Wuhan, it doesn’t mean the whole origins tracing, a continuous work, is finished.
Based on current findings, more researches under a global origins-tracing framework are necessary and require joint efforts from scientists worldwide, Tong Yigang, a Chinese expert from the joint expert team, said at the press conference.
–The Daily Mail-CGTN News exchange item
