The Chinese Ministry of Health announced today, Monday, that the World Health Organization team will start its mission next Thursday to investigate the origin of the "Covid-19" virus, after the visit was postponed last week, on the first anniversary of the first death due to the virus.

This visit is very sensitive to Beijing - keen not to bear any responsibility for the spread of the epidemic that has killed more than 1.9 million people across the world - and was canceled at the last minute last week for not completing the necessary statements of the team.

"After the discussions, the WHO expert team will travel to China from January 14 to start their investigations. They will conduct joint research in cooperation with Chinese scientists on the origins of Covid-19," the Ministry of Health said in a brief statement.

Beijing did not provide any details of the course of the visit, but investigators are expected to be subject to quarantine upon their arrival on Chinese soil.

In a rare criticism of China, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last week expressed his regret that his investigators were unable to enter the country.

And the green light comes a year after the first death in China from what was then a mysterious virus was announced.

China has largely eliminated the disease.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused this country of spreading the "Chinese virus" on the planet, but rather letting it leak from a virus research laboratory in the central city of Wuhan, where the virus appeared in late 2019.

The United States called for a "transparent" investigation led by the World Health Organization, and criticized its conditions that allowed Chinese scientists to conduct the first phase of preliminary research.

In evidence of their tension in this regard, the Communist authorities sentenced a citizen journalist, Zhang Chan, who wrote reports on quarantine in Wuhan, last week, to 4 years in prison.

A year ago, the first death from the new Corona virus was recorded in Wuhan, central China, but this ominous memory falls in silence at a time when China seeks to get rid of its image as the first focus of the "Covid-19" epidemic.

In the city in central China, which was the first region to quarantine, as of January 23, 2020, residents were devoted Monday morning to their usual daily concerns, while the official media remained silent about this first anniversary.

The name of the first known victim of the epidemic has not been announced, and all we know is that a 61-year-old man was heading to Huanan Market to shop.

On January 1, 2020, the authorities closed this market, which is the first major focus of the epidemic, and in which live wild animals intended for consumption were being sold, which were likely to have transmitted the virus to humans.

The market was still closed on Monday, behind a long fence.

Biden receives the second dose

Today, Monday, US President-elect Joe Biden receives his second dose of the vaccine against Covid-19, according to what his office announced, 3 weeks after receiving the first dose live, to enhance public confidence in the vaccine.

More than 374,000 people have died from the Corona virus in the United States, and Biden on Friday criticized the mechanism for distributing vaccines set by President Trump's administration, describing it as a "farce."

Only 6.7 million Americans have received a first dose so far, which is well below the stated target of 20 million by the end of 2020.

In Britain, whose capital has declared a state of emergency while struggling with the spread of a new strain of Corona virus, Health Minister Matt Hancock said that the country's health sector has become in "a very, very dangerous situation."

Canada began implementing a curfew on Saturday evening in the province of Quebec, in an effort to contain the second wave of the epidemic, a measure unprecedented for an entire Canadian province since the outbreak of the Spanish flu a century ago.

South Korea is also suffering from a new wave of the epidemic, as the health authorities announced today, Monday, that 451 new infections were recorded during the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to about 70,000.

Brazil has the second largest death toll in the world after the United States, and the third highest number of injuries after the United States and India.