[News] WHO to start new investigation into the origins of Covid-19 with fresh team of experts

The World Health Organisation is set to carry out a new investigation into the origins of the Covid outbreak and probe whether the virus came from a Wuhan lab.

A new team of experts will be appointed, including experts on biosecurity, laboratory safety, genetics, and how viruses spread to humans, The Wall Street Journal reports.

According to the report, they will look into whether coronavirus leaked from a lab in Wuhan, at the end of 2019 – a claim denied by China, which also wants the WHO to examine if the virus originated in another country.

It comes after US President Joe Biden ordered intelligence agencies to investigate the ‘lab leak’ theory.

 

A WHO spokesman said the new team’s ‘priority needs to be data and access in the country where the first reports were identified’.

The earlier investigation recommended China examine the earliest suspected coronavirus cases, with the team claiming in its final report that the data provided by the country was insufficient.