The World Health Organisation (WHO) has demanded China share the data and conduct the studies that the organisation requested with regard to the origins of Covid-19. This comes as Beijing is witnessing a rapid surge in infection as Chinese authorities were forced to lift lockdown curbs.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus repeated the call to China in a statement that appeared on the organisation's website on Wednesday. "We continue to call on China to share the data and conduct the studies that we have requested, to better understand the origins of this virus," the WHO chief said. "As I have said many times, all hypotheses remain on the table," he added.
At a media briefing held on Wednesday, the chief had said that the virus was here to stay but would need managing alongside other respiratory illnesses. The weekly Covid death toll was now around a fifth of what it was a year ago.
However, he added that he is "hopeful" that the COVID-19 pandemic will no longer be considered a global health emergency next year. "We’re hopeful that at some point next year, we will be able to say that COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency," the WHO chief added.
Multiple experts have put forth two theories about the origins of the virus. While most of them believe the SARS-CoV-2 virus jumped from animals to humans (a natural zoonotic spillover), there are also theories that the virus infected humans as a consequence of a research-related incident.
Though the WHO had sent a research team to China to study the origins of the virus, there were reports that the team, comprising researchers in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, were disappointed by the slow release of information from China.
Last year, China rejected a WHO plan for the second phase of an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus. The proposal was to study the hypothesis that the virus could have escaped from a Chinese laboratory. However, China voiced objections at the closed-door talks saying: "This plan is not a basis for future studies."
China had tagged the theory that the virus may have escaped from a Wuhan laboratory as "absurd."
Surge in cases
Meanwhile, international media reports say that Covid cases have exploded in Beijing. According to a CNN report, Beijing has been hit with a significant and spreading outbreak, forcing people to shun the busy streets and commercial centres of the capital city.
The report also quoted a community worker who claimed that 21 of the 24 workers in her Beijing neighbourhood committee office, tasked with coordinating residential matters and activities, had fallen ill in recent days. “As our superiors are mostly infected, there’s not much work being given to us. (The usual) events, lectures, performances, parent-child activities will definitely not be held," an employee Sylvia Sun told CNN.