MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd July, 2020) The team of the World Health Organization (WHO) is either on its way to China's Beijing or preparing for the trip and will depart shortly for a mission to study the origins of the COVID-19 virus, Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program Michael Ryan said on Thursday.
"Our small team is hopefully on its way to Beijing or will be very, very soon. We have been engaged in the series of virtual consultations again with scientific and other colleagues at the National Health Commission, China's CDC, in looking at work already done, the preliminary or earlier investigations and scientific studies on the origin of the virus. We continue to look at the opportunities for scientific collaboration and terms of reference for an international mission," Ryan said at an online briefing.
Ryan added that the WHO has already started reaching out to health experts to see "who will be available" for the international mission in the coming weeks.
The health official also praised China for its high level of engagement with the WHO and expressed confidence that the organization's mission in Beijing would turn out successful.
Earlier in July, the Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed that two WHO experts arrived in the country to begin a study on the origins of the coronavirus and lay the groundwork for the larger mission. The Chinese authorities have said they are in close contact with the mission and that studying the origins of the virus is a scientific matter that requires international collaboration and strenuous research. The WHO scoping mission is expected to set the ground for a larger international mission.
COVID-19 was first discovered in China last December and initial reports indicated that the start of the outbreak was linked to a market in the city of Wuhan in the Hubei province.
