WHO stays resolute over COVID-19 origin amid China's claims: 'Will start study from Wuhan'

The World Health Organization (WHO) chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has lambasted China for attempting to shift the blame of the Coronavirus' origin onto India. Calling out China for attempting to 'politicise' the WHO investigation on the origin of the virus, Dr Ghebreyesus strongly asserted that the study will start from Wuhan - the city in China where the first case of COVID-19 was reported last year. Since the COVID-19 outbreak in 2019, the virus has claimed 1,469,230 lives and has affected 63,286,254 globally. 

"We're doing everything to make sure that we know the origin. Some have been politicising this. Our position is very clear that we'll start the study from Wuhan, know what has happened there & based on findings, to explore if there're other avenues," ANI quoted the WHO chief on Monday. 

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China on COVID Origin

On the issue of COVID-19 origin, Chinese media reports have been stating that the Coronavirus did not start in Wuhan. Ever since Zeng Guang, an ex-epidemiologist at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said that coronavirus originated elsewhere before it appeared in China in December 2019, the state-controlled media of the Communist State have directed all their resources in propagating the claim as fact. 

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Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian also indicated the same saying it doesn't necessarily mean that the virus originated in China, even though the country was the first in the world to report cases. Chinese scientists have also submitted a paper to science journal The Lancet, wherein they have suggested that the virus may have originated in the Indian subcontinent well before it appeared in China. The paper is awaiting peer review before it can be published. 

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China is yet to provide any solid evidence to back the claim, which western scientists say is nothing but 'a way to whitewash' itself. China's reputation at the international stage has been tarnished after it emerged that the virus originated from a seafood market in Wuhan, which was operating illegally.  

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China has reassured that it would allow international experts to enter the country in order to investigate the animal origins of COVID-19, World Health Organization said on November 23. The UN agency, in July, had sent a team of experts to lay the groundwork for investigation. However, it has remained unclear whether international scientists would be allowed inside China to conduct epidemiological studies and identify the first human cases of COVID-19 and source of infection.