`The world deserves answers'

GENEVA • The World Health Organization on Friday proposed a second phase of studies into the origins of the coronavirus, including audits of laboratories and markets in Wuhan, and called for transparency from China.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus presented the plan to member states a day after saying that investigations were being hampered by the lack of raw data on the first days of spread of COVID-19 in China.

Phase two work would require studies of humans, wildlife and animal markets in Wuhan, including Huanan wholesale market, he said in remarks released by the agency.

It would also require “audits of relevant laboratories and research institutions operating in the area of the initial human cases identified in December 2019,” Tedros said. Diplomats said that China, which has resisted a return by international scientists, voiced objections at the closed-door talks saying: “This plan is not a basis for future studies.”

A WHO-led team spent four weeks in and around the central city of Wuhan with Chinese researchers and said in a joint report in March that the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal.

But countries including the United States and some scientists have demanded further investigation, particularly into the Wuhan Institute of Virology which was conducting research into bats. “Finding the origins of this virus is a scientific exercise that must be kept free from politics. For that to happen, we expect China to support this next phase of the scientific process by sharing all relevant data in a spirit of transparency,” Tedros said.

China has called the theory that the virus may have escaped from a Wuhan laboratory “absurd” and said repeatedly that “politicizing” the issue would hamper investigations. On Thursday, Tedros said, “We ask China to be transparent and open and to co-operate.

“We owe it to the millions who suffered and the millions who died to know what happened,” he said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular news briefing Friday that Beijing was mulling over the proposal made by Tedros. Zhao reaffirmed China's position that any decision on continuing the probe “should be reached by all members through consultation.”

“The Chinese side noted the draft plan made by Tedros and the secretariat and the Chinese side is looking into it,” Zhao said in response to a question about Tedros's comments. “Origin-tracing is a scientific matter. All parties should respect the opinion of the scientists and should refrain from politicizing origin-tracing.”

Separately, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison repeated his call for a transparent probe into the pandemic's origins, saying “the world deserves answers.”