New Delhi (NVI): A 10-member team of investigators from the World Health Organization (WHO) visited China’s most advanced virus research lab in Wuhan, seeking clues to the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The team, led by WHO virus expert Peter Ben Embarek, arrived at the heavily guarded Wuhan Institute of Virology this morning, as part of their ongoing probe, Global Times reported.
Scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) research on some of the deadliest pathogens found in the world including the bat-hosted coronavirus.
One of China’s top virus research labs, the institute built an archive of genetic information about bat coronaviruses after the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
The virus lab has been at the centre of a number of conspiracy theories that claim a laboratory leak caused the city’s first coronavirus outbreak at the end of 2019.
Questions also remain about a possible spillover – or a zoonotic event – where the virus could have jumped from an animal host to humans.
Following two weeks in quarantine, the WHO team that includes experts from 10 nations has visited hospitals, research institutes and a traditional wet market linked to many of the first cases.
Meanwhile, China on Wednesday reported the fewest number of new Covid-19 cases for a single day in more than a month, the national health commission (NHC) said.
A total of 25 cases were reported in the mainland on February 2, the NHC said, of which 15 were locally transmitted infections.
The total number of Covid-19 cases reported in mainland China now stands at 89,619, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,636.
-CHK
