Coronavirus: Australia welcomes growing support for inquiry into pandemic

Calls for an independent review into the origins and spread of Covid-19 have the provisional support of 116 nations, but China remains strongly opposed

India, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, Britain and Canada are among the cosponsors of the draft resolution

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Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne speaks to the media regarding a draft resolution for a independent coronavirus investigation on Monday. Photo: EPA

Published: 3:37pm, 18 May 2020Updated: 3:39pm, 18 May 2020

A draft resolution pushed by the European Union and Australia calling for an independent review into the origins and spread of the coronavirus has support from 116 nations at the World Health Assembly, almost enough for it to pass, a document showed.

The resolution on Covid-19 will be put forward on Tuesday if it gains backing from two-thirds of the 194 members of the assembly, the governing body of the World Health Organisation. China had strongly opposed Australia’s call last month for an international investigation into the pandemic.

Names on a draft resolution seen by Reuters on Monday showed support from 116 members was locked in, although Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said negotiations were ongoing and she did not want to pre-empt the outcome.

The resolution was “an important part of the conversation we started, and I am very grateful to the efforts of those in the European Union and those many drafters who have been part of the negotiations for the past few weeks,” she told reporters.

The World Health Assembly is the governing body of the World Health Organisation. Photo: Reuters

The resolution was comprehensive and included a call for “an examination of the zoonotic origins of the coronavirus”, she added.

More than 4.64 million people are reported to have been infected globally and 310,236 have died from the virus that was first uncovered in China late last year.