WUHAN, China (AP) – Researchers from the World Health Organization visited a research center in the Chinese city of Wuhan on Wednesday that has been speculating about the origin of the coronavirus.
The WHO team’s visit to the Wuhan Institute of Virology is a culmination of their mission to collect data and search for clues as to where the virus came from and how it spread.
Reporters followed the team to the high-security facility, but as with previous visits, there was no direct access to team members who have so far provided little detail of their discussions and visits. Uniformed and plainclothes guards stood guard amid thick morning fog, but there was no sign of the protective suits the team members had donned on Tuesday while visiting an animal disease research center.
As one of the top virus research labs in China, the institute built an archive of genetic information on bat coronaviruses after the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak, leading to unproven allegations that it may be linked to the original outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan in late 2019.
China has vigorously denied that possibility, promoting theories that the virus may have come from elsewhere or even brought into the country from abroad with imports of frozen seafood contaminated with the virus, an idea that has been flatly rejected by international scientists. and agencies.
The institute’s deputy director is Shi Zhengli, a virologist who, along with Peter Daszak, a zoologist on the WHO team’s mission, tracked down the origins of SARS that originated in China and led to the 2003 outbreak. has published extensively in academic journalists and has worked to debunk theories held by the former Trump administration and other US officials that the virus is either a bioweapon or a “lab leak” of the institute.
After two weeks in quarantine, the WHO team, consisting of experts from 10 countries, visited hospitals, research institutes and a traditional wet market associated with many of the first cases. Their visit followed months-long negotiations, with China striving to keep information about the outbreak and investigation into its origins tight, possibly to avoid blame for alleged missteps in its early response.
Confirmation of the virus’s origin will likely take years. Securing the animal tank from an outbreak usually requires thorough investigation, including animal sampling, genetic analysis and epidemiological studies. One possibility is that a wild animal poacher passed on the virus to traders who brought it to Wuhan.
The first clusters of COVID-19 were detected in Wuhan in late 2019, prompting the government to place the city of 11 million residents under a strict lockout of 76 days. China has since reported more than 89,000 cases and 4,600 deaths, with new cases largely concentrated in the frigid northeast and local lockdowns and travel restrictions imposed to contain outbreaks.
New cases of local transmission continue to decline with just 15 reports on Wednesday as Chinese heeded the government’s call not to travel for the Lunar New Year holiday later this month.