Mike Ryan, Executive Director of the World Health Organization's emergency program, said Monday that the Chinese city of Wuhan may not be the origin of the emerging coronavirus (Covid-19), announcing extensive studies to track down the types of animals that have transmitted the virus to humans.
The World Health Organization and China are to form an international team to travel to Wuhan to track the chain of infection from the first cases of Covid-19 that appeared late last year, after an outbreak was monitored by the city's pneumonia monitor.
While Chinese researchers have conducted studies on the first cases and on the Wuhan Seafood Market to find the animal source, "there are gaps in the epidemiological landscape," says Ryan.
He added: "What is required will be a broader, retrospective epidemiological study," to study the connections between the first human cases.
In late June, WHO President Tidros Adhanom Gebresus announced that a small introduction team from the WHO would go to China to prepare for this work.
And it took a month for WHO experts and their Chinese counterparts to draft a blueprint for the work plan.
On Friday, an international team of experts advising the WHO on the Covid-19 pandemic said the United Nations health agency should accelerate research to find the animal source of the Covid-19 virus.