China rejects WHO criticism over lack of cooperation on pandemic

Beijing [China], January 1: China has rejected claims from the World Health Organization (WHO) accusing it of refusing full cooperation to clarify the origin of the Coronavirus five years after the pandemic hit.
Five years ago, China immediately shared information and genetic sequences of the virus with the WHO, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said in Beijing on Tuesday.
China has always adhered to scientific openness and transparency and has passed on more data and scientific results for the traceability of the virus than any other country, she added.
It comes after the WHO came out on Monday to say that, five years after the first cases of a new lung disease were reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the UN agency is still waiting for full cooperation from Chinese authorities to clarify the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We continue to call on China to share data and access so we can understand the origins of COVID-19," the WHO said in Geneva.
"Without transparency, sharing, and cooperation among countries, the world cannot adequately prevent and prepare for future epidemics and pandemics," it added.
The first cases of what would turn out to be COVID-19, a contagious lung disease caused by the novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, were reported to the WHO from Wuhan in December 2019.
The virus quickly spread around the globe, leading the WHO to declare a pandemic in March 2020.
China has sought to ward off any blame for the outbreak and maintains that the virus could have been brought into the country from abroad.
How the pandemic started has been a subject of intense scientific scrutiny as well as heated political debates, with opinions divided primarily over whether it originated from a natural animal spillover or a lab leak.
Source: Qatar Tribune