UN Urges China To Fully Cooperate With WHO On Probe Into COVID-19 Origins - Spokesman

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd July, 2021) The United Nations calls on all member states, including China, to fully cooperate with the World Health Organization (WHO) amid Beijing's rejection of a further investigation into the origins of the COVID-19, UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said in a press briefing on Friday.

"We implore all member states, including China, to cooperate fully with the World Health Organization, and if the World Health Organization believes it requires further information, we hope that they will all cooperate," Haq said.

On Thursday, China's National Health Commission rejected the WHO plan for a second phase of the investigation, claiming its criteria were "insulting" and heavily suggested the laboratory leak possibility.

On Saturday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the second study will include an audit of labs and research facilities in the area where the first cases of COVID-19 were registered in December 2019. The new study is part of a five-stage plan which the WHO put together to identify where did the coronavirus originate.

In March, the WHO published a report of the first fact-finding mission of its experts to Wuhan, where the world's first coronavirus outbreak occurred. Experts concluded that the leakage of the virus from a state-run laboratory in Wuhan was "extremely unlikely." They also said that there was a high possibility that the virus was transmitted to humans from bats through another animal.