bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

quizIds

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

paywallTypes

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Simone McCarthy

The World Health Organization team investigating the origins of Covid-19 will land in China on Thursday, Beijing announced on Monday, after days of delay and confusion.
China’s National Health Commission said in a brief statement that the WHO team would work with Chinese scientists during the trip, without giving further details.
The arrangement was reached “after consultation” between the two sides, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in a regular press briefing later on Monday.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he welcomed China’s announcement.
“We look forward to working closely with our [Chinese] counterparts on this critical mission to identify the virus source & its route of introduction to the human population,” he said in a comment on Twitter.
Scientists seek the invisible in Wuhan investigation into coronavirus
Confirmation of the team’s arrival followed last-minute doubts over whether its members had permission to land in China.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last week said he was “very disappointed” that China had not yet finalised permissions for the team. Two members had already begun their journeys and others were not able to travel at the last minute, with the WHO citing “visa clearance” as the cause of the delay.
But Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying last week said “there might be some misunderstanding”, and that Chinese authorities were in close cooperation with the WHO to handle the pandemic.
The delay placed another question mark over the mission, which has been in the works for months and faced criticism over a lack of transparency as well as concerns that it was too late – more than a year after the virus was first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan.


The investigation, seeking to uncover the animal origins of the virus which causes Covid-19, was called for as part of a resolution passed at a meeting of the WHO’s governing body in May.
But politics around the origins of the virus have complicated the mission. The US under the Donald Trump administration has sought to blame China for the outbreak, while Beijing has launched a campaign questioning whether the virus emerged in China or was merely first identified there.
Beijing has characterised the WHO mission to China as the “China part” of a global effort to identify the origins of the virus. The WHO has said the mission could lead scientists out of China, but must start in Wuhan where the first known cases were identified.
In July, two WHO experts travelled to China and worked with health authorities to set out terms of reference for the mission, including research to be conducted by Chinese scientists and an international team of experts. The UN body at that time said the mission may begin in a “matter of weeks”.
WHO names line-up for international team looking into coronavirus origins
The international team and Chinese counterparts held their first meeting, online, at the end of October, after a selection process for the international experts, which included a submission of candidates to Beijing. They have held four meetings so far, China’s National Health Commission said on Saturday.
The field mission is meant to begin in Wuhan, and will include delving into hospital records to identify cases that may have existed earlier than the first ones identified in China in December 2019. Research will also include looking again at the seafood market linked to the first known cluster of patients.
Its role, either as the site where the virus first spilled into humans or as a location where the virus spread quickly among people, remains unknown. Experts believe that the virus came from an animal, likely a bat, before passing into humans, perhaps via an intermediary host.

Chinese scientists involved in the WHO mission are expected to have already begun the work, with the international expert team reviewing data and findings. Little information from China’s own research into the source has been publicly released.
The WHO has warned that uncovering the origins of new viruses could take years, and this mission may only lay the groundwork for future research.
Observers, meanwhile, said the success of this mission, and its acceptance by the international community, would depend on how much access the visiting team was granted.
“The WHO would greatly benefit if the Chinese would give the experts unlimited access to people, data and locations,” said Ayelet Berman, an adjunct assistant professor at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law. “But I doubt it’s going to be that simple.”
She pointed to the WHO’s limited power to demand access as it was dependent on Beijing, both to be invited into the country and during the research itself.
But Beijing has incentive to make sure that the mission is viewed as credible, according to Dominic Meagher, a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.
“China is facing an external trust problem … their interests have to be aligned with letting this investigation go as freely as possible,” he said. “If [the international experts] come out of the mission and say, ‘we think this happened, but we didn’t get clear access to people, or we weren’t allowed into these areas’ then who is going to see that as vindicating China?”
However, he said last week’s delay did not instil confidence that the mission was a high priority for the Chinese leadership.
Although Beijing balked at calls last spring for an inquiry into how the outbreak started, it has repeatedly defended its record of working with the WHO on tracing the source of the virus.
Wang Yiwei, an international relations professor at Renmin University of China, said: “China has always highlighted its cooperation with the WHO, particularly for finding the scientific source of the virus, [but] not for political purposes … that’s what China of course cannot accept.”
Additional reporting by Teddy Ng


Hong Kong investigates suspected Covid-19 contamination of swabs in 5 hospitals

Hong Kong health experts urge older residents to get Covid jab amid fatalities

China fires back after White House site pushes Covid-19 ‘lab leak’ theory

Trump turns White House Covid information site into page pushing Chinese lab leak theory

Coronavirus pandemic

WHO coronavirus investigation team to arrive in China on Thursday

An engineer works on a Covid-19 vaccine in Beijing on April 29. A team of WHO health experts will work with Chinese scientists to determine the origins of the new coronavirus. Photo: AFP

(FILES) This file photo taken on March 11, 2020, shows World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attending a press briefing on COVID-19 at the WHO headquarters in Geneva. - Ethiopia's army chief on November 19, 2020, accused WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus -- the country's highest-profile Tigrayan abroad -- of lobbying in favour of the dissident region and helping them get weapons. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

A team of health experts from the World Health Organization will work with Chinese scientists to determine the origins of the new coronavirus. Photo: AP

Coronavirus: WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tells rich countries to stop cutting the coronavirus vaccines queue

World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Photo: AFP

Coronavirus: China ‘ready and open’ for WHO team visit to Wuhan in origin quest

A top Chinese health official says China is ready for a WHO team trip to Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first detected. Photo: AFP

China moves to charm Asia ahead of Biden presidency

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi with Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi during a previous visit. Photo: Xinhua

News

China

Science

Diplomacy

Coronavirus

Greater China


Beijing’s announcement follows confusion and delay after visa ‘misunderstanding’ and is welcomed by World Health Organization chief
The international experts will work with Chinese scientists to determine virus origin, health commission says



Beijing’s announcement follows confusion and delay after visa ‘misunderstanding’ and is welcomed by World Health Organization chief.


WHO coronavirus investigation team to arrive in China on Thursday

Beijing’s announcement follows confusion and delay after visa ‘misunderstanding’ and is welcomed by World Health Organization chief The international experts will work with Chinese scientists to determine virus origin, health commission says

Beijing’s announcement follows confusion and delay after visa ‘misunderstanding’ and is welcomed by World Health Organization chief

The international experts will work with Chinese scientists to determine virus origin, health commission says