WHO’S investigators to visit China on Thursday
BEIJING/WASHINGTON: A World Health Organization (WHO) team of international experts tasked with investigating the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic will arrive in China on January 14, Chinese authorities said on Monday.
The announcement came on the day Wuhan marked one year since the central Chinese city reported the first confirmed fatality from the coronavirus disease.
Lack of authorisation from Beijing had delayed the arrival of the 10-strong team on a longawaited mission to investigate early infections, in what China’s foreign ministry called a “misunderstanding”.
The National Health Commission, which announced the arrival date, delayed from its early January schedule, did not detail the team’s itinerary, however.
China, which on Monday reported a five-month high of 103 daily infections, has been accused of a cover-up that delayed its initial response, allowing the coronavirus virus to spread since it first emerged in Wuhan late in 2019.
The United States has repeatedly called for a “transparent” Who-led investigation and criticised its terms, which allowed Chinese scientists to do the first phase of preliminary research.
Global cases double to 90mn in 10 weeks
Coronavirus infections have now surpassed 90 million confirmed cases around the world, as more countries braced for wider spread of more virulent strains of the disease. The number of cases worldwide has doubled in just 10 weeks, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Infections had hit 45 million in late October.
Fabrizio Soccorsi, 78, personal doctor to Pope Francis, has died, according to media reports. He was hospitalised in Rome for cancer, but complications from Covid-19 was reportedly the cause of death. The pope had chosen him as his personal doctor in 2015. Reports did not say if the two had recent contact. Francis recently urged people to get vaccinated.