Coronavirus: China confirms WHO advance team in Beijing to pave way for origins search

Foreign ministry underlines position that origin-tracing should also take place in other countries

Beijing’s line aimed at reassuring domestic audience about source of the pathogen, analyst says

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Two WHO experts are in Beijing to pave the way for a bigger mission into the origins of the coronavirus. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 8:31pm, 13 Jul 2020Updated: 9:16am, 14 Jul 2020

After a weekend of silence, China has confirmed that two World Health Organisation experts are in Beijing working with Chinese counterparts to identify the source of the pandemic coronavirus.

But the Chinese foreign ministry again said that the search should go beyond China.

Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China and the WHO had reached a “fundamental consensus” that “origin-tracing is a scientific issue that should be studied by scientists through international research and cooperation across the globe”.

“It is also the view of the WHO that origin-tracing is an ongoing process probably concerning many countries and localities, and the WHO will conduct similar trips to other countries and regions in light of the actual need,” she said.

The statement on Monday was the first official recognition of the arrival of the Geneva-based experts, who flew to Beijing on Friday to pave the way for a future WHO-led international scientific mission to uncover how the virus crossed into humans from animals.

The two experts, an animal health specialist and an epidemiologist, would work with officials from the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Health Commission to determine the scope of and logistics for the bigger international team to follow, the WHO said last week. The experts’ identities and itinerary, as well as the date of the later mission have not been disclosed.

This effort comes as the global infections reached a grim daily high, with more than 230,000 new cases, mainly from the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa, according to the WHO’s report on Sunday.

The virus is thought to come from an animal, likely a bat, before spreading to humans, possibly through an intermediary animal.

Scientists say that understanding how the pathogen made that leap is important for cutting off potential routes of transmission and preventing future pandemics.