Vinayak Barot
NEW DELHI, Jan 6: The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday expressed disappointment over China “refusing” permission to its team of experts to visit the country to examine the origins of COVID-19.
A WHO team of experts was scheduled to reach China this week and pay a visit to the city of Wuhan which is suspected to be the place from where Coronavirus emerged and spread all over the world.
The WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said only on Tuesday he learnt that the Chinese officials had not yet finalized the necessary permissions for the team’s arrival in China.
The experts drawn from around the world were expected to visit China and the city of Wuhan. “Members of the international scientific team began departing from their home countries over the last 24 hours. But today we have learnt that Chinese officials have not yet finalized the necessary permissions for the team’s arrival in China,” Tedros told a media conference in Geneva on Tuesday.
“We were expecting that China will grant the permission to allow a team of experts into China to examine the origins of COVID-19 but Beijing refused the proposal,” he regretted.
“I’m very disappointed with this news given that two members had already begun their journey and others were not able to travel at the last minute.” He said the WHO was in contact with senior Chinese officials to sort out the issue.
The emergencies chief of WHO, Dr Michael Ryan said the deployment had been expected to start on Tuesday but “the needed approvals had not yet been granted, including for visa clearances.”
Ryan hoped that the problem was just a logistical and bureaucratic issue and would be resolved soon. “Tedros had taken immediate action and spoken with unspecified senior Chinese officials. We hope that this is just a logistical and bureaucratic issue that can be resolved very quickly,” he said.
The WHO chief had met Chinese President Xi Jinping early last year when the pandemic had started emerging.