Team probing COVID-19 origins to visit China on January 14, WHO welcomes move

"We look forward to working closely with our Chinese counterparts on this critical mission to identify the virus source," said WHO.

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Geneva: The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday (January 11, 2021) welcomed China's announcement regarding the entry of the team probing the COVID-19 origins.

The WHO team of international experts tasked with examining the COVID-19 origins will arrive in China on January 14, reported the Reuters news agency.

The WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus welcomed the news and said, "We look forward to working closely with our Chinese counterparts on this critical mission to identify the virus source & its route of introduction to the human population."

We welcome #China's announcement regarding the intl. team examining the origins of virus that causes #COVID19. We look forward to working closely with our  counterparts on this critical mission to identify the virus source & its route of introduction to the human population. — Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) January 11, 2021

Notably, the WHO chief was recently 'very disappointed' after China delayed the entry of the same team.

"Today we learned that Chinese officials have not yet finalised the necessary permissions for the team’s arrival in China. I am very disappointed with this news given that two members had already begun their journeys and others were not able to travel at the last minute," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on January 5.  

This is to be noted that the WHO has been blamed for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak. The United States President Donald Trump in April 2020, had stopped his country's funding for WHO and said the funding will remain halted till a review is being conducted in the WHO's 'role in severely mismanaging and covering up' the spread of coronavirus.

"The WHO failed in its basic duty and it must be held accountable," Donald Trump had said. 

"Had the WHO done its job to get medical experts into China to objectively assess the situation on the ground and to call out China's lack of transparency, the outbreak could have been contained at its source with very little death. This would have saved thousands of lives and avoided worldwide economic damage. Instead, the WHO willingly took China's assurances to face value and defended the actions of the Chinese government," remarked Trump.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 confirmed infections across the world have increased to 8,88,28,387, according to WHO. Over 222 countries, areas or territories with coronavirus cases have also reported 19,26,625 confirmed deaths.