Tedros Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organisation
(WHO), has accused Chinese authorities of delaying a planned visit by a team of
experts to the country.
Ghebreyesus said he is “very disappointed” that China is
delaying the visit to Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus emerged over a year
ago.
The experts from across the world are expected to examine
the origin of the virus in the Chinese town.
But addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Ghebreyesus said Chinese officials have not finalised permissions for the arrival of the team of experts into the country to examine origins of COVID-19.
“Today, we learned
that Chinese officials have not yet finalised the necessary permissions for the
team’s arrival in China,” he was quoted to have said.
“I’m very disappointed with this news, given that two
members had already begun their journeys and others were not able to travel at
the last minute, but had been in contact with senior Chinese officials.”
The WHO DG added he had earlier been “assured that China is
speeding up the internal procedures for the earliest possible deployment” for
the visit which he said was a priority for the organisation.
“We are eager to get
the mission underway as soon as possible,” he added.
The reported delay re-echoes the events that played out in
early January after the emergence of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan.
Although China first reported the virus to the WHO on
December 31, 2019, the Asian country has been accused of not acting fast and
withholding information about the health emergency.
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