The World Health Organization chief pressed China on Thursday to share its information about the origins of COVID-19, saying that until that happened all hypotheses remained on the table, more than three years after the virus first emerged .
"Without full access to the information that China has, you cannot say this or that," said Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in response to a question about the virus' origins.
"All hypotheses are on the table. That's WHO's position and that's why we have been asking China to be cooperative on this."The virus was first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, with many suspecting a live animal market to be involved, before spreading round the world and killing nearly 7 million people to date.
Data from the early days of the COVID pandemic, briefly uploaded to a database by Chinese scientists, gives information on its origins, including suggesting a role for raccoon dogs in the coronavirus reaching humans,The WHO's Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead for COVID-19, said the latest Chinese information offered some "clues" on origins but no answers.
Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Emma Farge in Geneva and Raghav Mahobe and Pratik Jain in Bangalore; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel
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