WHO found the original coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan to be much more widespread than what China reported

The World Health Organization (WHO) mission that visited China estimates that in December 2019, the coronavirus was more widespread than previously thought in Wuhan province, the network reported on Sunday. American CNN.

The director of this mission, Peter Ben Embarek, told the channel that Chinese scientists presented the mission with 174 cases of coronavirus recorded in Wuhan and its surroundings and that they were reported in December 2019, of which 100 were confirmed. in the laboratory and the rest by clinical diagnosis of the patient. Added that This increase in the number of cases, possibly serious cases, discovered early on by Chinese doctors, could mean that the disease affected more than 1,000 people in Wuhan in December.

“The virus was circulating widely in Wuhan in December, which is a new discovery,” Embarek said, returned to Switzerland after a four-week mission to the Asian country to investigate the origin of the virus.

The researcher noted that They found there were more than a dozen strains of the virus in Wuhan as of December, a sign that reflects a wider spread than previously thought.

He added that they were also able to speak with the patient indicated by Chinese authorities as the first case: an office worker in quarantine, with no travel history, and reported infected on December 8, 2019.

Embarek pointed out that after the mission they managed to collect for the first time 13 different genetic sequences of the SARS-COV-2 virus as of December 2019, which, if examined with larger patient data in China in 2019, could provide clues as to where and when the outbreak took place before December .

This genetic material, according to CNN, is possibly the first international evidence to support the theory that Several variants of the virus have been circulating since before December 2019, as estimated by some virologists.

The broadcast of the interview with the mission director takes place after Saturday The White House has demanded that the Chinese government make public its data on the early days of the pandemic, and has expressed “deep concerns” about how the WHO mission released its findings after its visit to China.

In a statement, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said it was “imperative” that the WHO investigation into the origin of the virus be “independent” from the findings of the mission in Wuhan and “free from any intervention or modification by the Chinese government”.

Friday the newspaper The Wall Street Journal reported that the Chinese government refused to provide the WHO mission with original data on the first cases of covid-19 in the Asian country and provided only the reports it had prepared on these infections.

Therefore, the WHO team was unable to review the original data on which these reports were based, which would allow them to draw their own conclusions about the origin and how the virus spread. according to researchers from the organization cited anonymously by The Wall. Street newspaper

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington criticized the remarks and stressed that “WHO is an authorized multilateral international health organization, not an amusement park where one can come and go. at will, ”referring to the process that former United States President Donald Trump began to leave the body. “What the United States has done in recent years has severely undermined multilateral institutions, including the WHO, and severely damaged international cooperation on COVID-19,” he added.

Embarek told CNN that they hope to return to China’s Wuhan province in the next few months to continue investigations, but at the moment there are no specific dates.

With information from EFE

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