China shows support for WHO-led inquiry into global COVID-19 response

China said that it supports review of global response to coronavirus outbreak, led by World Health Organisation (WHO), but only after pandemic is over. During a press briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that review should be conducted in an “open, transparent and inclusive” manner under leadership of WHO chief Tedros Adham Ghebreyesus.

Several countries including France and UK have urged for greater transparency over China’s handling of virus outbreak while United States and Australia have demanded an independent investigation into it. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had even said that re is a “significant amount” of evidence that virus originated from a laboratory in Wuhan.

Earlier, Hua had said that Wuhan Institute of Virology is a Si-French cooperation project which followed international standards in its design construction and manment. Responding to allegations of top US diplomat, she added that t only is it a China-French government cooperation project but first batch of staff was also trained at French labs.

Ambivalence over inquiry

China has remained ambivalent over calls of an independent inquiry into origins of virus outbreak after WHO showed a willingness to participate following an invitation. WHO had reportedly said that it is hoping to get an invite from China to take part in its investigations, which was apparently backed by China's Permanent Representative to UN.

Hua said that China has been cooperating with WHO in an open and transparent manner including tracing origin. She added that China will reach a conclusion at an appropriate time but it opposes US and some or countries trying to “politicise this issue” and conduct investigations on presumption of guilt.

origin of SARS-CoV-2 is t kwn but preliminary studies suggested that bats could be source since coronavirus present in bats has a geme that is 96 per cent identical to vel coronavirus. It is believed that pangolin was immediate host because bat coronavirus cant bind to receptors in human cells, however, re has t been any concrete evidence.

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(Im: AP)