A World Health Organization team has emerged from quarantine in the Chinese city of Wuhan to start field work in a fact-finding mission on the origins of the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
The researchers, who were required to complete 14 days in quarantine after arriving in China, could be seen leaving their hotel and boarding a bus on Thursday afternoon. It wasn’t immediately clear where they were headed.
The mission has become politically charged, as China seeks to avoid blame for alleged missteps in its early response to the outbreak. A major question is where the Chinese side will allow the researchers to go and whom they will be able to talk to.
Men wearing masks chat outside the hotel where a team of experts from the World Health Organization are quarantined in Wuhan in centra China's Hubei province on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021. A World Health Organization team has emerged from quarantine in the Chinese city of Wuhan to start field work in a fact-finding mission on the origins of the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP PhotoNg Han Guan)
The mission only came about after considerable wrangling between the sides that led to a rare complaint from the WHO that China was taking too long to make final arrangements.
China, which has strongly opposed an independent investigation it could not fully control, said the matter was complicated and that Chinese medical staff were preoccupied with new virus clusters Beijing, Shanghai and other cities.
While the WHO was criticized early on, especially by the U.S., for not being critical enough of the Chinese response, it recently accused China and other countries of moving too slowly at the start of the outbreak, drawing a rare admission from the Chinese side that it could have done better.
A cyclist past by the hotel where a team of experts from the World Health Organization are quarantined in Wuhan in centra China's Hubei province on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021. A World Health Organization team has emerged from quarantine in the Chinese city of Wuhan to start field work in a fact-finding mission on the origins of the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP PhotoNg Han Guan)
Overall, though, China has staunchly defended its response, possibly out of concern over the reputational or even financial costs are being lacking.
A security person waves away journalists outside the hotel where a team of experts from the World Health Organization are quarantined in Wuhan in centra China's Hubei province on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021. A World Health Organization team has emerged from quarantine in the Chinese city of Wuhan to start field work in a fact-finding mission on the origins of the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.(AP PhotoNg Han Guan)
Journalists gather outside the hotel where a team of experts from the World Health Organization are quarantined in Wuhan in centra China's Hubei province on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021. A World Health Organization team has emerged from quarantine in the Chinese city of Wuhan to start field work in a fact-finding mission on the origins of the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.(AP PhotoNg Han Guan)