China caves; agrees to international probe into COVID origins amid 120+ nations' pressure

After a series of denials, Chinese President Xi Jinping has finally acquiesced to an international inquiry about origin of dely Coronavirus pandemic that has taken world host. development comes after over 110 nations demanded an international investigation into cause of virus outbreak which has claimed over 3,18,000 deaths while infecting over 4.8 million worldwide as number goes on increasing by hour.

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A resolution was tabled at World Health Assembly, drafted by European Union with signatories from 120 countries including India, seeking an investigation into SARS-CoV-2 virus’s source and process of its introduction into humans.

resolution has t only raised questions on origins of virus but also questioned leership of World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros ham Ghebreyesus.

For weeks, China h been bitterly opposing proposal from or countries to conduct an international probe into pandemic's origins. But during annual meeting, China which is birthplace of dely contagion, agreed to an independent evaluation of coronavirus response once pandemic is over.

US President Donald Trump was also invited to speak at assembly, but declined invitation, two officials, one at WHO and one at White House, were quoted as saying.

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Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who represented US at virtual meeting, used platform to accuse WHO of allowing China to cover up outbreak.

"We must be frank about one of primary reasons that this outbreak spun out of control," he said. "re was a failure by this organisation to obtain information that world needed and that failure cost many lives," Azar ded.

China has repeatedly been accused of concealing information on outbreak and exercising a lack of transparency over severity of crisis. Australia was first to demand a probe into virus outbreak to which China h retaliated by halting beef imports from Australia and imposed 80 percent tariff on Barley imports from Australia for five years.

Besides Australia, United States has been an open critic of China's handling of health crisis, accusing China of lacking transparency in dealing with pandemic and concealing severity of crisis. US President Donald Trump has also accused WHO of being a 'puppet of China'.

(With ANI inputs)