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China blocks WHO team to investigate origin of covid

2021-01-06T07:55:37.721Z


The WHO said China has blocked the arrival of a team investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.


This is the dimension of those killed by covid-19 in 2020 1:59

(CNN) -

The World Health Organization (WHO) said China has blocked the arrival of a team investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, in a rare reprimand from the UN agency to the Asian country.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that two scientists from the United Nations team had already left their home countries for Wuhan when they were told that Chinese officials had not approved the necessary permits to enter the country.

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The arrangements had been agreed in advance jointly with China.

WHO Director: "I am very disappointed"

"I am very disappointed with this news," Tedros told a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday.

"I have been in contact with senior Chinese officials and have once again made it clear that the mission is a priority for WHO and the international team."

Tedros said the WHO was "anxious to get the mission underway as soon as possible" and had been assured that Beijing was speeding up the internal procedure for "deployment as soon as possible."

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Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergencies program, said there was a problem with visas and that a member of the team had already returned home.

The other was waiting in transit in a third country.

WHO officials have long been negotiating with Beijing to allow a team of global scientists to access key sites to investigate the origin of the virus, first detected in Wuhan in December 2019, and its likely one-species jump. unidentified host to humans.

In May, the WHO agreed to conduct an investigation into the global response to the pandemic after more than 100 countries signed a resolution calling for an independent inquiry.

Ryan said the team hoped it was "just a logistical and bureaucratic problem" that can be resolved in "good faith in the next few hours and restart the team's deployment as soon as possible."

Criticism of China

The United States and Australia have led criticisms of China's handling of the initial stages of the pandemic, accusing Beijing of downplaying its severity and preventing an effective response until it was too late.

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US President Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed China for the global pandemic and announced that his country would end its relationship with the WHO after stating that China had not adequately provided the information it had on the coronavirus and that it had put pressure on the WHO to "fool the world."

The United States has demanded transparency in the operations of the WHO in China.

In November, Garrett Grigsby, an official with the US Department of Health and Human Services, told the WHO assembly that the terms of the investigation into China "were not negotiated in a transparent manner" and that "the investigation itself appears to be incompatible 'with his mandate.

A backlog of confidential documents obtained by CNN last year from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Hubei province, where the virus was first detected in 2019, shows how Chinese officials gave the world more optimistic data from those who had access internally, by not initially reporting the number of cases during the early stages of the outbreak.

China denies hiding information

The Chinese government has repeatedly rejected accusations made by the United States and other Western governments that it deliberately withheld information related to the virus, maintaining that it has been sincere since the beginning of the outbreak.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday that the country would welcome the WHO team, according to Reuters.

CNN has reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry seeking comment on Tedros' remarks.

As countries around the world fight new outbreaks and spikes in infections, China appears to be on the mend.

Last month, the country posted positive economic growth for the second consecutive quarter.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi praised China's efforts against the pandemic at home and abroad, saying the country "launched an emergency global humanitarian campaign" and "helped build a consensus on a global response. to the covid-19 ».

Origin of the virus

As the WHO team prepared to embark, Chinese officials and state media have questioned the origins of the virus.

They state that "a growing body of research suggests that the pandemic was likely caused by separate outbreaks in various parts of the world," according to Wang.

On Monday, reports circulated on Chinese social media that the virus had been detected in auto parts packaging in several cities, including from foreign brands.

For months, China has been testing and disinfecting frozen products imported from abroad, fearing that the virus could re-enter the country that way, even as experts remain skeptical that this is a potential source of infection.

The WHO says it is "highly unlikely that people can contract COVID-19 from food or food packaging," and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention contend that it is "believed that the risk is very low.

Both bodies insist there is no evidence of such transmission and the countries have even threatened to bring a case against China to the World Trade Organization over import restrictions.

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Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2021-01-06

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