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May 8, 2020

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WHO backed to find the origins of virus

Source: Agencies | 00:05 UTC+8 May 8, 2020 | Print Edition

CHINA said yesterday it supports the World Health Organization in trying to pinpoint the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and said the US was trying to shift blame over the coronavirus, after President Donald Trump said the pandemic was a worse “attack” than Pearl Harbor or 9/11.

The WHO is in talks with China to send a delegation to the country for further investigations on the novel coronavirus, said Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead for the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, on Wednesday.

The academic mission will focus on what “happened at the beginning in terms of the exposures with different animals” so the WHO can find the zoonotic source of the virus, said Van Kerkhove at a press conference in Geneva.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, addressing reporters in Beijing yesterday, said China supported WHO efforts to investigate the origin of the pandemic.

“We are always open to cooperate with the WHO on matters, including on the question of origin,” she said.

In February, the WHO sent a team of experts to China to learn more about the situation of the outbreak in the country and how the virus was spreading.

The WHO has urged countries to investigate any early suspicious cases and called earlier comments about a possible laboratory source by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “speculative.”

“While scientists have not come to a conclusion, why is Secretary Pompeo drawing the hasty conclusion that the virus came from a Wuhan lab? Where is his proof?” Hua said.

At a White House event on Wednesday, Trump, who is seeking re-election in November, called the virus the worst “attack” the United States had ever experienced, and blamed China for not stopping it.

Hua said the only enemy was the virus. “Because that is the common enemy of all of humanity... Faced with this mankind battle against the virus, China should be (a) US comrade in arms, not enemy.”

She also said that Chinese local governments and companies had donated 9.6 million masks, 500,000 test kits, 305,000 pairs of gloves and 133,500 pairs of goggles to 55 cities in 30 US states as of Tuesday.

“We urge the US side to stop shifting the blame to China and turn to facts,” said Hua. She added that “lots of foreign countries, experts and scientists have all made positive comments on China’s effective virus prevention and control.”

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