‘China's moral imperative': WHO chief lashes at Beijing over Covid origin info

Covid Origin: The world health body demanded that Beijing must immediately share all relevant information.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said that the health agency was certain that China had far more data on the origin of Covid that would help in shedding more light on the virus that brought the world to a halt. The world health body demanded that Beijing must immediately share all relevant information.

Covid Origin: World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is seen.(AFP)

"Without full access to the information that China has... all hypotheses are on the table," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, adding, “That's why we have been asking China to be cooperative on this.” He insisted that if Beijing does provide the missing data “we will know what happened or how it started”, more than three years after Covid first emerged.

The WHO chief also said that it is China's “moral imperative” to share the data.

“We need to know the answer, beyond reasonable doubt," he said.

From a theory that the virus jumped naturally to humans from animals and another saying that the virus likely leaked from a Wuhan laboratory, scientists have remained divided about the origins of the virus. A study claimed last month that raccoon dogs, known to be able to carry and transmit viruses that causes Covid, were at a market in Wuhan when the disease was first detected.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead on Covid, said that the new information provided "clues", but no clear answers, saying that the data "collected in January and February 2020, more than three years ago" should have been shared long ago.

"Without information, without data to make a proper assessment, it's very difficult for us to give a concrete answer. And in the present time, we don't have a concrete answer of how the pandemic began," she said.

“We know there is more information that's out there. We need scientists, public health professionals and governments to share this information. This is not a game,” she said.