China: WHO experts visit Wuhan hospital under Beijing's watchful eye
WHO experts after visiting the exhibition on the Chinese response to Covid-19, in Wuhan.
AFP - HECTOR RETAMAL
Text by: RFI Follow
5 mins
After the end of their fortnight on Thursday, WHO experts in China who are investigating the origin of Covid-19 visited a hospital in Wuhan, the first to have received coronavirus patients.
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On the side of the authorities, who
remain extremely silent
on the subject as it is politically sensitive, the movement of WHO experts to China "
is not an investigation,
" a spokesperson for the Chinese ministry said immediately on Friday. of Foreign Affairs, Zhao Lijian, refusing to have his country singled out.
Thus, the precise schedule of researchers at the World Health Organization is almost unknown, only the messages on social networks posted by the WHO and its employees say more about the progress of the investigation.
The head of the team responsible for investigating the origins of
Covid-19,
Mr. Ryan, only said that he "has
a very, very busy schedule
".
First step: the first hospital to have treated cases of Covid-19
It is therefore in rather opaque conditions that the investigators went this Saturday morning, under good escort and at a distance from the press, to the Jinyintan hospital in Wuhan, the first to have received patients suffering from what was, a little over a year ago,
“
a mysterious pneumonia
”.
But more than a year after the start of the epidemic, which then became a global pandemic, doubts remain as to the value of the elements that the investigators will be able to gather.
However, the visit was an “
important opportunity to speak directly with the doctors who were on the ground at this critical moment in the fight against COVID!
", Commented on Twitter Peter Daszak, one of the members of the delegation.
2nd day on-the-ground in Wuhan meeting w / leaders & staff at the famous Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital that treated large numbers of severe COVID cases early in the outbreak.
Important opportunity to talk directly w / medics who were on the ground at that critical time fighting COVID!
- Peter Daszak (@PeterDaszak) January 30, 2021
In the Chinese press, this visit goes almost unnoticed.
Media such as
GlobalTimes
evoke the WHO's trip and in particular the interest of researchers in the Huanan market, a place frequented by several of the first cases of Covid-19 detected.
The World Health Organization also tried on Friday to temper expectations around this mission.
"
I would like to warn everyone: success in an investigation into animal-to-human transmission does not have to be measured by absolutely finding a source on the first mission,
" Michael Ryan told reporters. , the director of emergency operations at WHO.
The ultra-controlled communication of the Chinese authorities
On the other hand, if there is one subject on which the Chinese authorities are not stingy in communication, it is that of their response to the pandemic.
If the communist power
closes the debate on the start of the epidemic
, it regularly boasts of its victory against the virus.
China was able to limit the contagion to less than 90,000 cases and the number of deaths to 4,636, according to the official count, while the virus has spread across the globe, with a toll of more than 2 million deaths and some regions are still bearing the brunt of the spread of the epidemic.
Proof of his willingness to communicate, a huge exhibition, to which WHO experts were invited, was set up in Wuhan to the glory of the Communist Party and pays tribute to Chinese rescuers.
Inside, dozens of mannequins in caregivers' coveralls greet visitors, under a sea of red banners.
Huge portraits of President Xi Jinping dominate the ensemble, while smaller panels pay tribute to caregivers who have succumbed to the virus.
(With
AFP
)
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