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Chinese officials have yet to grant final permission to allow WHO-designated experts into the country, although several have already embarked on the trip, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a conference on Tuesday. press. The permit is delayed despite months of negotiations and planning between Chinese officials and a team of 10 experts.
“I was very disappointed with this message, especially considering that two members of the group have already embarked on a trip and others have not been able to leave at the last minute,” said the WHO chief. “We really want this mission to happen as soon as possible.”
The delays by Chinese authorities raise concern that Beijing is obstructing international efforts to trace the origins of the pandemic, which has already killed more than 1.8 million people. People around the world. After receiving moths of criticism for China’s initial cover-up of the scale of the crisis, state media and government officials are trying to inject a possible version that the pathogen did not originate from this Asian country alone.
It seems that the members of the WHO expert group will have to cancel their visit for some time.
“No, fortunately, I have not yet been able to leave,” writes the Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans on her Twitter account when asked if she encounters obstacles to travel.
The WHO has been criticized for favoring China too much during the pandemic. In addition, other countries blame him for reducing the severity of the crisis at the beginning of the pandemic. US President Donald Trump said last year that the superpower would sever ties with the WHO if it did not “demonstrate its independence” from China.
China’s chief epidemiologist Liang Wannian, who was in charge of overseeing the country’s response to the virus until September last year, said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Tuesday that a WHO investigation into China “will begin very soon.”
The WHO team and experts from China plan to work together to examine data and samples taken from the Wuhan live market, where many of China’s early COVID-19 patients are believed to have been infected, he said.
Liang Wannian has reported that he has been working with two WHO experts since July last year. According to the epidemiologist, they are working together to develop a plan for the tracking process in China.
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