China refused to give raw data on initial COVID-19 cases in Wuhan: Report

Chinese authorities refused to provide World Health Organisation (WHO) investigators with raw, personalised data of  preliminary days of COVID-19 pandemic last year that could have contributed to determining how and when vel coronavirus first began to spread in China, Wall Street Journal reported citing WHO investigators who described dramatic exchanges over lack of crucial detail on SARS-CoV-2. As per report, Chinese authorities dismissed calls by UN health ncy to provide data including 174 cases of COVID-19 that y have identified from early phase of outbreak in Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. 

e investigators are part of WHO team that this weak completed monthlong, highly-political visit to Wuhan where vel coronavirus had first emerged late 2019, to investigate origin of disease. Both Chinese officials and scientists provided ir own extensive summaries and analysis of data on initial cases, reportedly claims WHO team members. As per report, investigators were provided info about analysis carried out by Chinese experts along with aggregated data and retrospective analysis based on medical records made in months before outbreak.

However, when WHO experts asked about a raw, personalised data, request was denied even though it might have helped investigators in determining origin. Or information regarding disease in country was also t readily forthcoming. However, China maintained its narrative of denying that coronavirus had an origin in country despite being first nation to have a massive outbreak. 

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WHO's Wuhan Probe 'uncovered New Information'

head of World Health Organization’s (WHO) team of international experts on Tuesday said that its investigation in Wuhan to find origins of vel coronavirus had uncovered new information but had t changed picture of outbreak. Peter Ben Embarek, a Swiss food safety scientist who leads WHO team of international experts visiting Wuhan, said in a press briefing that coronavirus is 'unlikely' to have leaked from a Chinese lab. He furr added that it is more likely to have jumped to humans from an animal. 

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After crucial investigatory visit to China's city, Wuhan, where coronavirus case was first reported in December 2019, Embarek assessed 'most likely' pathway through an intermediary host species. In press briefing, he also said that work to identify origins of virus "points to a natural reservoir in bats", but it is "unlikely that y were in Wuhan". 

Since Wuhan Insitute of Virology has collected extensive virus samples, it budded a conspiracy ory that it might have caused original outbreak by leaking virus into community nearby. China has repeatedly denied all ories of virus emerging from elsewhere but WHO team is still probing how disease first ended up among humans.  

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