WHO 'very disappointed' China blocked entry to its coronavirus experts
The 10-strong team had been due to set off in early January as part of a long-awaited mission to probe early cases of the coronavirus, first reported over a year ago in China's Wuhan.
By SARAH CHEMLA, REUTERSDirector General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a news conference on the situation of the coronavirus (COVID-2019), in Geneva, Switzerland, February 28, 2020.(photo credit: REUTERS/DENIS BALIBOUSE)
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday he was "very disappointed" that China has still not authorized the entry of a team of international experts to examine the origins of the coronavirus.The 10-person team had been due to set off in early January as part of a long-awaited mission to probe early cases of the coronavirus, first reported more than a year ago in China's Wuhan."Today we learned that Chinese officials have not yet finalized the necessary permissions for the team's arrival in China," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an online news conference in Geneva."I have been in contact with senior Chinese officials and I have once again made it clear the mission is a priority for the WHO," he said of the trip he said was developed with Beijing.The mission was due to be led by Peter Ben Embarek, WHO's top expert on animal diseases that cross the species barrier, who went to China on a preliminary mission last July.Two members of the international team had already set out on their journey to China. One has now returned and the other is in transit in a third country, emergencies chief Mike Ryan said.However, he added, "We trust and hope that is just a logistic and bureaucratic issue that can be resolved very quickly."Ahead of the trip, Beijing has been seeking to shape the narrative about when and where the pandemic began, with senior diplomat Wang Yi saying "more and more studies" showed that it emerged in multiple regions. Ryan has previously called this "highly speculative."China has dismissed criticism of its handling of early cases that emerged in late 2019, although some, including US President Donald Trump, have questioned Beijing's actions during the outbreak.Washington, which has announced plans to leave the WHO, has called for a "transparent" investigation and criticized its terms under which Chinese experts conducted the first phase of research.This blockage comes a week after a Chinese court handed down a four-year jail term to citizen-journalist who reported from the central city of Wuhan at the peak of last year's coronavirus outbreak in China.The journalist stood accused of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," fielding interviews with foreign media outlets and "maliciously spreading" misinformation about the viral outbreak within the Chinese city, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). Prosecutors initially recommended a sentence of four to five years.Zachary Keyser contributed to this report.
