The World Health Organisation (WHO) is still considering the theory that the coronavirus got leaked from the Wuhan lab in China.
Speaking on the origins of the virus, WHO director general – Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that it was premature to rule out a potential link between the COVID-19 and laboratory leak.
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However, the first phase of the WHO’s investigation that ended in February, concluded that it was highly unlikely that the virus came from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
Dr Tedros said the WHO needs access to raw patient data from just before and the start of the pandemic this time around.
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Dr Tedros said that getting access to raw data was a challenge for the international experts’ team that visited China earlier this year to investigate the origins of COVID-19.
WHO has urged China to be more co-operative with the WHO’s second phase of the investigation into the origins of COVID-19.
Dr Tedros said that the WHO is “asking actually China to be transparent, open and cooperate, especially on the information, raw data that we asked for at the early days of the pandemic.”
Dr Tedros also warned against the idea that the pandemic was coming to an end. The WHO’s emergency committee said that new and more dangerous variants were expected to spread around the world.
“The pandemic is nowhere near finished,” the committee warned in a statement.