WUHAN, China (AP) – World Health Organization investigators looking for clues to the origin of the coronavirus in central China’s Wuhan city said the Chinese side offered a high level of co-operation, but warned not to expect immediate results from the visit .
“I keep saying we have to be realistic, a short mission like this will not have all the answers, but it helps to understand #virusorigin #wuhan,” said Hung Nguyen-Viet, co-leader of the International Institute’s Animal and Human Health Program. of Animal Husbandry Research in Nairobi, Kenya, said in a tweet on Thursday.
In a previous tweet, zoologist and team member Peter Daszak praised Wednesday’s meetings with the main staff of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, including the deputy director, Shi Zhengli, a virologist who worked with Daszak to trace the origins. SARS originated in China and led to the outbreak in 2003.
“An extremely important meeting today with WIV staff, including Dr. Shi Zhengli. Frank, open discussion. Key questions asked and answered. “, Daszak posted on Twitter.
The team spent about two hours on Thursday meeting with managers and residents at the Jiangxinyuan Community Administrative Center in Wuhan’s Hanyang District. No details were given.
Official statistics show that there were at least 16 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the community last year among nearly 10,000 people living there when the virus broke out.
Earlier, Daszak posted on Twitter images of the media outside the virology institute, saying: “Thank you to the press for their patience and interest in spreading this news to the world. Work is moving forward and we look forward to talking about results as soon as possible. ”
The Wuhan Institute of Virology has collected extensive samples of the virus, leading to unproven allegations that it could have caused the initial outbreak by leaking the virus to the surrounding community. China has strongly denied this possibility and promoted unproven theories that the virus could have originated elsewhere.
Together with the institute, the WHO team, which includes experts from 10 nations, visited hospitals, research institutes, a traditional outbreak-related market and other sites.
The team members met with researchers and the institute’s management, experts, vendors, residents and media representatives, Chinese National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng told the journal.
It may take years and more investigations in many parts of the globe to confirm the origins of the virus due to extensive research, including animal sampling, genetic testing and epidemiological studies needed to identify the animal’s reservoir of an outbreak. One possibility is that a wild poacher transmitted the virus to traders who transported it to Wuhan, but this has not yet been proven.
The first clusters of COVID-19 were detected in Wuhan in late 2019, prompting the government to put the city of 11 million in a strict 76-day blockade. China has since reported more than 89,000 cases and 4,600 deaths – most of them in Wuhan – with new cases largely concentrated in its northeast and local blockades and travel restrictions imposed to counter outbreaks.
The new local transmission cases dropped to just 17 on Thursday, while the Chinese government is considering calls to skip family visits and stay during the monthly New Year’s holiday at the end of this month.
China also advanced a vaccination plan for 50 million people for COVID-19 by mid-month. As of Wednesday, more than 31 million doses had been administered, Mi told reporters.