BEIJING (Reuters) – China has shared the most COVID-19 data and research results with the international community, its foreign ministry said on Tuesday, after the World Health Organization reiterated its call for more information and access.
China is also the only country that has organized experts to share traceability progress with the WHO on many occasions, said Mao Ning, a spokesman for the foreign ministry, at a regular press conference.
In a statement on Monday, the WHO again asked China to share data and access to help its efforts to understand the origins of COVID-19, the first cases of which were detected in central China five years ago.
According to the WHO, there have been more than 760 million cases of COVID-19 and 6.9 million deaths worldwide. In mid-2023, he declared the end of COVID-19 a public health emergency, but said the disease should be a permanent reminder of the possibility of new viruses emerging with devastating consequences.
Data from the first days of the pandemic were transferred by Chinese scientists to an international database in early 2023, a few months after China lifted all its restrictions related to COVID-19 and reopened its borders to the rest of the world.
The data showed that DNA from multiple animal species – including raccoon dogs – was present in environmental samples that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, suggesting they are the “most likely carriers” of the disease, according to these international researcher.
In 2021, a WHO-led team spent weeks in and around Wuhan – where the first cases were discovered – and said the virus was likely transmitted from bats to humans by another animal, but further research was needed.
China said no more visits were needed and that the search for the first cases should be conducted in other countries.
“On the issue of traceability of COVID-19, China has shared the most data and research results and made the greatest contribution to global traceability research,” Mao said.
“International WHO experts have repeatedly said that during their visit to China, they went to all the places they wanted to go and met all the people they wanted to see.”
