China says virus may have come from Spain

CHINESE officials have insisted that any investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic should not be confined to China, pointing to Spain as an alternative source. The statements came ahead of a World Health Organisation “scoping mission” to China next week, to establish a platform to trace the emergence of Sars-Cov-2.

“We can fight the virus better when we know everything about the virus, including how it started,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO.

Zeng Guang, the chief epidemiologist for the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, told the state-run ‘Global Times’: “It does not matter which country the scientific identification work starts with, as long as it involves all related countries and is fairly conducted.”

Wang Guangfa, one of the Chinese government’s top health advisers, said the WHO should go to Spain.

He referenced researchers in Barcelona who said they detected the presence of Covid-19 in a wastewater sample in March last year, nine months before the outbreak was first reported in Wuhan, central China.

Independent experts have been sceptical. So far the hunt for information has centred around the Huanan seafood wholesale market in Wuhan. (© Daily Telegraph, London)