On Monday, WHO said that it had received reassurances from China that international experts would soon be able to travel to China to help investigate the animal origins of Covid-19.
In a virtual press briefing WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said: “We fully expect and have reassurances from our Chinese government colleagues that the trip to the field… will be facilitated, and as soon as possible.”
He said: “We need to be able to have the international team join our Chinese colleagues… and look at the results and the outcomes of (their) studies and verify the data on the ground.”
Ryan praise the tremendous amount of scientific investigation done by the Chinese, but said international experts needed to go in in order that the international community can be reassured about the quality of the science.
He said: “This is extremely important, and we are continuing to expect that that be the case.”
Ryan said that the teams had continued to hold regular virtual meetings as they prepared for the mission.
He said: “Clearly we all need to understand the origin of the virus, we all need to understand where it has come from, not least to understand where it may re-emerge in the future.”
