WHO team visits second China hospital to trace COVID origin
January 30, 2021
The World Health Organization (WHO) experts continued their probe into the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic on the second full working day with a visit to the Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital.
The medical facility was one of the first in the Chinese city to treat patients in early 2020 suffering from the virus. Experts believe these hospitals are a key part of the epidemiological history of the disease.
"Just back from visit at Jinyintan hospital, that specialized in infectious diseases and was designated for treatment of the first cases in Wuhan," Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans tweeted on Saturday. "Stories quite similar to what I have heard from our ICU doctors."
Zoologist Peter Daszak of the US group EcoHealth Alliance, who is a member of the 10-strong international team, said in a tweet that the visit was an "important opportunity to talk directly" with medics who were fighting the virus at the critical time.
Learning about the virus' origin
The WHO team met their Chinese counterparts face-to-face on Friday in the central city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus is believed to have originated. The purpose of their China visit it to learn more about the origins of the coronavirus.
Provincial capital Wuhan, in Hubei, was the initial epicenter of the disease. But exactly which species the virus came from and how it was transmitted to humans remains unknown.
The experts arrived there on January 14, but spent two weeks in a required quarantine. During this time they communicated with Chinese officials by video calls to lay the groundwork for field visits.
The team will also visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and laboratories at medical facilities, including the Wuhan Center for Disease Control.
"All hypotheses are on the table as the team follows the science in their work to understand the origins of the COVID-19 virus,'' the WHO tweeted. It said the team had already requested "detailed underlying data" and planned to speak with early responders and some of the first patients.
Mission delays and China's reluctance
China seeks to avoid blame for alleged missteps and cover-ups in its early response to the coronavirus outbreak and has pushed the idea that the virus existed abroad before it was discovered in Wuhan.
The WHO mission was delayed several times, with Chinese authorities refusing access to the team until mid-January.
It is unclear whether the experts would be able to trace the virus' origin a year after its first outbreak in Wuhan.
On Friday, Michael Ryan, the WHO's emergencies director, played down expectations, saying the success of the mission "is not measured necessarily in absolutely finding a source on the first mission."
"This is a complicated business, but what we need to do is gather all of the data... and come to an assessment as to how much more we know about the origins of the disease and what further studies may be needed to elucidate that," he said.
shs/rc (AP, AFP, Reuters)