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Coronavirus pandemic
ChinaDiplomacy

Li Keqiang says China will continue to work with WHO on coronavirus origins

  • But premier sidesteps question of whether more early outbreak data will be released to investigators
  • It follows remarks from WHO team member that science has been ‘absolutely crushed’ by politics and anti-China sentiment

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Premier Li Keqiang said China had been “open, transparent and cooperative” and supported the WHO mission. Photo: Xinhua
Simone McCarthy
Premier Li Keqiang has pledged to work with the World Health Organization to continue research into the origins of the virus that causes Covid-19, while sidestepping a question about whether China would release more data from the early days of the outbreak.
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Li’s comments, at the close of China’s annual legislative session on Thursday, come as a WHO team is preparing to release a report on their recent 28-day mission in Wuhan, where the virus was first identified in late 2019.

There has been scrutiny over whether the team investigating the pandemic’s origins had sufficient access to data during their time in China. The US and Britain have called on China to release its outbreak data, after some of the international researchers who travelled to Wuhan said they did not see all the data they would have liked to during the visit.

Li said China had taken an “open, transparent and cooperative approach” and provided the WHO mission with support.

“We will continue to work with the WHO in taking work on this front forward,” he said.

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Beijing has previously expressed support for the WHO’s research into the origins of the virus, but said it also needs to take place in other countries, suggesting without evidence that the virus may have originated elsewhere.

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