WUHAN, China (AP) – A World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic visited a provincial disease control center that had an early hand in managing the outbreak.
WHO investigators arrived in the capital of Hubei Province, Wuhan, last month to look for clues and visited hospitals that treated many of the first patients and a seafood market where cases of the then-unknown virus infection appeared in December 2019.
The team’s visit to Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control on Monday took place amid strict Chinese controls on access to information about the virus. China has tried to avoid blame for alleged mistakes in its early response to the outbreak, while promoting alternative theories that the virus originated elsewhere and could have even been brought to Wuhan from abroad.
Following the visit, a team member, Peter Daszak, told reporters that it was a “very good meeting, really important”. No other details were given.
The evidence the team is gathering will add to what has been expected to be a search for answers for years. Fixing the animal reservoir of an outbreak requires massive amounts of research, including animal sampling, genetic analysis and epidemiological studies.
China has largely limited domestic transmission through strict testing and tracking of contacts. Wearing a mask in public is observed almost universally and blockages are usually imposed on communities and even entire cities where cases are detected. The latest outbreaks occurred mainly in the cold northeast, with 33 new cases reported Monday nationwide in three provinces.
Despite this, China registered more than 2,000 new domestic cases of COVID-19 in January, the highest monthly total since the final phase of the initial outbreak in Wuhan last March. Two people died of the disease in January, the first reporting COVID deaths in China in a few months.
Schools have gone online, and travel has been drastically reduced during this month’s New Year’s holiday, with the government providing incentives for people to stay during the most important time for family reunions across the nation.