WHO-led team in Wuhan begins probe with virtual meetings
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The hotel in Wuhan where the World Health Organisation-led team probing the origins of Covid-19 is in quarantine. The team's arrival at the city on Thursday was disrupted by the absence of two members who failed Covid-19 antibody tests while in transit in Singapore.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WUHAN/SINGAPORE • A team led by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that is investigating the origins of Covid-19 was to begin virtual meetings yesterday with its Chinese hosts from a hotel in China's Wuhan, where the pandemic first emerged.
The team's arrival at the city in central China on Thursday was disrupted by the absence of two members who failed coronavirus antibody tests while in transit in Singapore.
"Team now undergoing the mandatory 14 days of quarantine and being treated very well by our hosts. Work begins today, day one, in (teleconference meetings with) China team," tweeted team member Peter Daszak, a zoologist.
The driveway and carpark of the boutique hotel where the team is staying was cordoned off with tape yesterday and security personnel stood guard at the entrance.
The team's arrival in Wuhan came as China is on alert over a resurgence of coronavirus cases in its north-east.
The United States, which has accused China of hiding the extent of its initial outbreak a year ago, has called for a transparent WHO-led investigation and criticised the terms of the visit, under which Chinese experts have done the first phase of research.
Dr Dominic Dwyer, an Australian virologist on the team, said they were trying to keep the politics surrounding the trip aside.
"One of the things that Covid-19 has shown us is if you have good science, you then inform the politics," he said. "You want to fill the scientific vacuum with the answers so that people can make more informed and, therefore, presumably more sensible decisions."
Dr Dwyer said he hoped to visit research institutes, hospitals and the market where the first human cases of the disease were detected in late 2019. "Getting an understanding of how they (markets) work physically by seeing them is helpful because one's trying to work out how viruses might have come into the market from outside... and spread within the market, or parts of the market, and then spread to the community."
One of the two missing members of the team, a UK national, will be allowed to travel to China after retesting negative in an antibody test, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a news briefing in Beijing yesterday. The other member, who is Sudanese, is still testing positive for antibodies, he said.
The team of 15 had all tested negative for the disease prior to leaving their home countries and underwent further testing while in transit in Singapore.
REUTERS
