China must share more data on COVID virus origin 'for a better future', reiterates WHO

World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday said that China must be more forthcoming with data and information related to the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

In recent months, China has resisted global pressure to cooperate fully with investigations into the COVID-19 pandemic or provide access to genetic sequences of coronavirus kept at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which remains a subject of speculation and reported safety problems. Beijing has even fought against allegations that it mishandled the emergence of the pandemic.

Now, while the world is in the second year of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, the origins of the disease still remains a mystery. Scientists have offered various theories including one which suggests that the virus appeared due to a leak at a Chinese laboratory.

On Monday, the WHO Chief also said that there had been 'many failures' during the COVID-19 pandemic due to a lack of rules or obligations under the health agency's current 2005 International Health Regulations. 

"We need to continue until we know the origins, we need to push harder because we should learn from what happened this time in order to (do) better in the future," Tedros told a news briefing for Geneva journalists.

COVID origin probe 

The WHO had previously said that the investigations into the origins of COVID-19 in China are stalled by the lack of raw data on the earliest cases of coronavirus infections. WHO chief had also called on China to be more transparent as little is known about the origin of the deadly virus even after the WHO-led team spent at least four weeks in and around the central city of Wuhan with the Chinese researchers.

China, on the other hand, has repeatedly denied that the virus escaped from one of its laboratories and has stated that no further inspections are required. It has instead accused the US of peddling "conspiracies" and politicising the pandemic. But experts argue that China should inform the public about the challenges of determining the virus' origins.

(Image: AP/Twitter)