Coronavirus: WHO investigation team members leave hotel quarantine in China

They’ve spent the first two weeks of their mission looking into origins of Covid-19 in video meetings with Chinese scientists

Several posted photos on Twitter celebrating the end of the isolation period

Reading Time:3 minutes

WHO experts leave the Jade Boutique Hotel in Wuhan by bus on Thursday after spending 14 days in quarantine. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 5:06pm, 28 Jan 2021Updated: 3:19am, 29 Jan 2021

A World Health Organization team in China to investigate the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic ended 14 days of hotel quarantine on Thursday, kicking off the field portion of their month-long mission.

Team members were seen boarding a bus outside their hotel in Wuhan around 3pm, after being cleared to leave following the mandatory isolation period.

The 14-member team includes international veterinary, virology and medical experts, as well as five WHO officials. They have spent the first two weeks of their mission in video meetings with Chinese scientists, as they work to understand where the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 came from and how it began spreading in Wuhan, where it was first identified in late 2019.

Several of the international experts took to Twitter on Thursday to celebrate the end of the isolation period.

“Graduation!!!” virologist Marion Koopmans of the Erasmus University Medical Centre in the Netherlands tweeted, above a picture of her holding an official medical form noting the end of the quarantine.

“Congratulations!” the team leader, WHO animal disease expert Peter Ben Embarek, wrote in reply.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x