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Coronavirus: Americans on WHO team to assess crisis, China says
- Experts to visit Beijing, Guangdong and Sichuan – but Hubei, where the virus originated, is not on the itinerary
- Specialists say the visit must include a trip to the outbreak’s epicentre in the province to get a full picture
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A team of medical experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO), including specialists from the US, will visit Beijing and the Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Sichuan from Monday to assess the country’s efforts to contain the spread of a deadly coronavirus, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.
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But neither Wuhan or any other part of Hubei, the central Chinese province at the epicentre of the outbreak, was on the itinerary, raising concerns among medical experts about the transparency of the mission.
The death toll from the coronavirus had risen to 1,770 on mainland China as of Sunday, with 70,548 people, including more than 1,700 medical workers, infected. Most of those confirmed with the disease, now known as Covid-19, are in Wuhan.
China has repeatedly said it welcomes international cooperation to contain the outbreak, but the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that it had not yet received an invitation to send experts to the country.
On Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the WHO delegation would include Americans, but gave no further details.
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