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Geneva (dpa) - The World Health Organization (WHO) wants to further investigate whether there were minor outbreaks with the corona virus in China before December 2019.
That said the Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans, who was recently with a WHO expert mission in China, on Friday at a press conference of the WHO in Geneva.
The team of experts searched China for the origin of the pandemic.
It is advisable to search blood banks that were collecting samples from the Wuhan region in autumn 2019, Koopmans said.
Access is being discussed with the Chinese authorities.
The team of experts is expected to submit a first, shorter report on the findings it gained on the trip next week, said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
According to experts, the results presented at a first press conference at the end of the trip in China were poor.
WHO team leader Peter Ben Embarek confirmed there that the virus, as already assumed, probably spread from bats to humans via an intermediate host.
In Geneva, Embarek now spoke of considerable progress.
The team knows more about what exactly happened in December in the Wuhan region and what role the Huanan market played in the spread.
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According to Koopmans, after a review of medical files, 92 patients were identified in Wuhan who had symptoms similar to Covid 19 before December 2019.
Covid-19 is the disease that the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus can cause.
Chinese authorities had tested those of the 92 who were still alive who could reach them for antibodies in the past few weeks.
There was no indication of a previous infection with Sars-CoV-2.
However, it is not certain whether antibodies can still be present after such a long time.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210212-99-418684 / 2
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