Five years after the first cases of a new lung disease were registered in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that it still expects full cooperation from Beijing to clarify the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, DPA and BTA reported.
"This is a moral and scientific imperative", the organization said yesterday. "We continue to call on China to share data and access so that we can understand the origin of COVID-19".
"Without transparency, sharing and cooperation between countries, the world cannot prevent and adequately prepare for future epidemics and pandemics", the WHO warns.
In 2021, a joint commission of Chinese and WHO experts visited Wuhan. In its final report, the committee considers it "probable to very likely" that the coronavirus originated in a wild animal species and then spread to another animal species before jumping to humans.
However, the origin and route of transmission cannot be clearly determined.