Virus data row: China slams US

BEIJING: China fired back on Sunday at the US over allegations from the White House that Beijing withheld some information about the coronavirus outbreak from World Health Organization investigators.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the US had “deep concerns about the way in which the early findings of the Covid-19 investigation were communicated and questions about the process used to reach them.”

China responded with a statement from its Washington embassy on Sunday, saying the US had already “gravely damaged international cooperation on Covid-19” and was now “pointing fingers at other countries who have been faithfully supporting the WHO.”

Meanwhile, CNN reported the WHO investigators had discovered that signs of the outbreak were much wider in Wuhan in December 2019 than previously thought.

The lead investigator, Peter

Ben Embarek, told CNN that the team is urgently seeking access to hundreds and thousands of blood samples from the city that China has not so far let them examine.

On Sunday, the UK affirmed its plan for schools to reopen from early next month as the nation’s vaccine programme looks set to meet its first target. The country is moving to the next phase of inoculations as it neared a target of giving vaccines to 15 million of the most vulnerable people.

New Zealand’s most populous city, Auckland, went into a snap three-day lockdown from Sunday midnight after three members of one household were diagnosed with the virus.

Japan gave formal approval to the Pfizer vaccine, in its first go-ahead for shots against the coronavirus. Japan is expected to begin inoculations this week, starting with medical professionals. The government has agreed to buy the vaccine from Pfizer for 72 million people this year.