An expert group prepared by WHO intends to conduct a thorough analysis of the origin of the coronavirus, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Thursday.
“Further research is needed to determine how COVID-19 spread from the very beginning, including a more detailed analysis of the possibility of an abnormal situation in the laboratory,” the AP quotes excerpts from the report of the expert group.
The agency recalls that last year the US Department of Health announced that there was an extremely small possibility of the spread of COVID-19 among people due to a leak from the laboratory.
“Basic data to explain the emergence of the pandemic is still missing. Scientists said the group is open to any scientific evidence available to comprehensively explore all reasonable hypotheses,” the report says.
Infection with the coronavirus COVID-19 was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei province at the end of 2019, then it began to spread around the world. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus a pandemic.
By early April 2020, WHO reported that the number of cases of COVID-19 infection worldwide exceeded 1 million. By mid-October 2021, almost 240 million cases of infection had been registered worldwide.
Most scientists initially believed that COVID-19 was a virus of zoonotic origin. It is assumed that it could be transmitted to humans from bats. To determine the source of origin of the coronavirus, WHO initiated a special investigation. To this end, in early February 2021, a team of WHO experts visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology and, following the visit, concluded that a leak of viruses from the laboratory of the institute was “highly unlikely”. Many Western countries did not agree with the results of this investigation.
China has repeatedly opposed calls by WHO to conduct additional investigations in the country to determine the source of the origin of COVID-19.
