GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization’s director-general urged countries on Monday not to politicize the hunt for the origins of the novel coronavirus as that would create barriers to learning the truth.
“We need to know the origin of this virus because it can help us to prevent future outbreaks,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a daily briefing.
“There is nothing to hide. We want to know the origin, and that’s it.”
Chinese state media have said the virus existed abroad before it was discovered in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, citing the presence of coronavirus on imported frozen food packaging and scientific papers saying it had been circulating in Europe last year.
(Reporting by Emma Farge and John Miller; Writing by Hugh Lawson; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
