International experts World Health Organization (WHO) are denied access to China for investigation the origin of the coronavirus. This was stated by the head of the WHO Tedros Adan Ghebreyesus, his words are quoted in the official Twitter account of the organization.
Tedros accused the Chinese authorities of not issuing the necessary permits for the experts to arrive in China. “I am very disappointed with this news, given that two of the team members have already started their trip and others have not been able to travel to China at the last minute,” he said.
The head of the WHO said that he had already discussed the problem with the Chinese authorities and received assurances that Beijing would speed up the procedure for issuing the necessary permits. “We want the investigation to start as soon as possible,” Tedros added.
An outbreak of COVID-19 pneumonia caused by a novel coronavirus was first recorded at the end of 2019 in Wuhan, China. On March 11, 2020, WHO announced that the situation could be characterized as a pandemic. By January 6, 2021, the number of cases of coronavirus infection in the world exceeded 86 million.
Earlier, the Deputy Adviser to the President of the United States Donald Trump for National Security Matthew Pottinger said that a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China is the most likely version of the origin of the coronavirus. Representative of MFA of China Hua Chunying called these statements a lie.