A team of experts from the World Health Organization on a mission to investigate the origin of the coronavirus, have been denied entry into china.
WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was “very disappointed” with the bar on entry.
After months of negotiation, a 10-man team was due to arrive in China this week but it appears Beijing is determined to conceal the story behind the virus, as it has so far resisted pressure for a full independent probe into the early days of the outbreak.
The first cases of the coronavirus were recorded in Wuhan, China, late in 2019, prompting U.S President, Donald Trump, to name the pandemic the “China virus”.
The WHO investigative team was scheduled to seek clear answers on the actual emergence of the virus and how it jumped from animals to humans.
But speaking, the WHO DG, stated that Beijing is yet to grant the team entry.
“Today, we learned that Chinese officials have not yet finalised the necessary permissions for the team’s arrivals in China.
“I am 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,” Tedros said on Tuesday.
Reacting, WHO Emergencies Director, Michael Ryan, said at a briefing on Tuesday that the problem was lack of visa clearances.
“We trust and we hope that this is just a (logistical) and bureaucratic issue that can be resolved very quickly,” he said.
