UPDATE - Beijing Denies Claims China Failed To Provide Data To WHO Probe Into COVID-19 Origins

BEIJING (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 31st March, 2021) Beijing had provided to the World Health Organization (WHO) expert mission investigating the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in Wuhan the same data that had been used by Chinese experts, Chinese health official Liang Wannian, who was a co-leader of the joint study with the WHO, said on Wednesday amid international criticism of the WHO study.

On Tuesday, the WHO released the full version of a report with expert conclusions on possible origins of COVID-19. After the publication, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that China had withheld data from international experts during their visit to the Chinese city of Wuhan where an outbreak was first reported in late 2019. The United States and 13 other nations have jointly expressed their concerns over the WHO report saying it was late in coming out and failed to include complete data and samples.

"The assumptions and theories that China did not provide basic data are unfounded. From the moment when the joint group of Chinese and international experts arrived in Wuhan, we were drawing up a research program and analyzing the available data and materials together," Liang Wannian said at a press conference.

The expert noted that, of course, according to Chinese law, some data cannot be taken away or photographed, but during the joint analysis of the materials in Wuhan "everyone could see the database and the materials.

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Liang Wannian also firmly denied claims that China pressured WHO experts, saying such allegations were "groundless."

"When I saw these statements in some foreign media, I got the feeling that they did not correspond to the facts," he said.

According to Liang Wannian, upon their arrival from China, the WHO experts gave several interviews and used various means to share information about research, and none of their statements expressed such concerns.

"Chinese and international experts say that they are confident in their abilities because they are scientists, they [use] scientific methods and have nothing to do with politics," he stressed.

International experts traveled in January to Wuhan where they examined a laboratory, hospitals and markets for clues on the virus' origins. The authors of the report called the leak of COVID-19 from a laboratory in Wuhan very unlikely. The report also says the new type of coronavirus was most likely transmitted to humans from bats through an intermediary animal.

The WHO expert mission also failed to draw firm conclusion about the role of the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan in the origin of the COVID-19 outbreak.