WHO Experts Will go to China to Determinate Origin of COVID-19

The World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Monday announced his office would send a team to China to determine COVID-19 origins.

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“We will be sending a team next week to China to prepare for that, and we hope that that will lead to understanding how the virus started,” Ghebreyesus stated.

COVID-19 origins are still not clear, after six months of studies and tests. Experts assume the virus led to a zoonosis.  As they speculated, the first outbreak may have occurred in an exotic animal market in Wuhan. 

“Knowing the source of the virus is very, very important. We can fight the virus better when we know everything about the virus, including how it started,” the WHO director-general assured.

Ghebreyesus did not specify the expert composition or research methodology. He also urged governments to adopt pandemic control strategies based on five premises: communities’ empowerment, transmission suppression, lives saving, research acceleration, and political leadership.

“The worst is yet to come. I am sorry to say that, but in this kind of environment and condition, we fear the worst. We have to bring our acts together and fight this dangerous virus, together,” Ghebreyesus warned.

The WHO general director called nations for resilience, patience, humility and generosity, and hope. 

“It is also a time for all countries to renew their commitment to universal health coverage as the cornerstone of social and economic development – and to building the safer, fairer, greener, more inclusive world we all want,” he concluded.

As of Tuesday morning, 10,436,954  COVID-19 cases were reported worldwide, as well as 508,876 deaths, and 5,695,572 recoveries from the virus.