Highly speculative to say COVID-19 did not emerge in China, says WHO

Following China’s allegation that coronavirus originated in India, the World Health Organisation’s top emergency expert said that it would be “highly speculative” for the WHO to say the coronavirus did not emerge in China. Several reports confirmed that coronavirus was identified in a food market in China on December 2019.

China is pushing a narrative through its state media that the virus existed abroad before it was discovered in the central city of Wuhan.

“I think it’s highly speculative for us to say that the disease did not emerge in China,” Mike Ryan said at a virtual briefing in Geneva after being asked if COVID-19 could have first emerged outside China.

“It is clear from a public health perspective that you start your investigations where the human cases first emerged,” he added, saying that evidence might then lead to other places.

He repeated that the WHO intended to send researchers to the Wuhan food market to probe the virus origins further.

United States President Donald Trump accused WHO of being “China centric”, an allegation, the apex body repeatedly denied.