|
 U.S. intelligence agencies are examining reports that researchers at
a Chinese virology laboratory were seriously ill in 2019 a month
before the first cases of COVID-19 were reported, according to U.S.
government sources who cautioned on Monday that there is still no
proof the disease originated at the lab.
"Phase 2 of the COVID origins study must be launched with terms of
reference that are transparent, science-based, and give
international experts the independence to fully assess the source of
the virus and the early days of the outbreak," U.S. health secretary
Xavier Becerra said in a video message to the annual ministerial
meeting of the World Health Organization.
Becerra did not mention China directly, where the first known human
cases of COVID-19 emerged in the central city of Wuhan in December
2019.
The origin of the virus is hotly contested. In a report https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus/origins-of-the-virus
issued in March written jointly with Chinese scientists, a WHO-led
team that spent four weeks in and around Wuhan in January and
February said the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to
humans through another animal, and that "introduction through a
laboratory incident was considered to be an extremely unlikely
pathway".
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 A WHO spokesman, Tarik
Jasarevic, asking about a follow-up mission,
told Reuters on Monday that the agency was
reviewing the recommendations from the report at
the technical level. "The
technical teams will prepare a proposal for the next studies that
will need to be carried out, and will present that to the
Director-General for his consideration," he said, referring to WHO
director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Jasarevic, noting Tedros' remarks on March 30, said that further
studies would be needed in a range of areas, including on the early
detection of cases and clusters, the potential roles of animal
markets, transmission via the food chain and the laboratory incident
hypothesis.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Andrew Heavens and
Philippa Fletcher)
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