Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived at the Wuhan Institute of Virology on Wednesday, February 3, as part of their investigation into the origin of the coronavirus in this city in central China.
The institute has several high-security laboratories where researchers are working on coronaviruses.
Former US President Donald Trump accused the institute of leaking the virus that caused Covid-19, causing a global pandemic.
The accusation has been strongly denied by Beijing.
The team of ten researchers "expect a very productive day and ask all the questions that need to be, as we know," one of the experts, Peter Daszak, told reporters. when arriving by car at the entrance to the institute.
Ultra-sensitive visit
The visit of the WHO is ultra-sensitive for the Chinese power, which seeks to evacuate any responsibility in the outbreak of the epidemic in 2019 and suggests, without demonstrating it, that the virus could have been imported into China.
Conversely, Beijing insists on its success in containing the contagion and on its production of vaccines, exported to several countries.
The communist regime thus waited more than a year before authorizing the visit of the WHO, which had to undergo a quarantine of 14 days before starting its work last week.
Many analysts doubt that international experts will find any revealing clues that the epidemic has started after such a delay.
During their visit, the experts "will exchange ideas with the researchers of the institute on their daily work, on international scientific cooperation and on the fight against epidemic", announced Wednesday morning the Chinese language news channel. foreign CGTN.
Last week, a spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy said the WHO's visit to China was part of a research project.
“This is not an investigation,” he said.
With AFP
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