No basis to claims China withheld COVID-19 data: Chinese official

A senior Chinese health official has rejected allegations that Beijing withheld data from a team of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) investigating the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying there is no factual basis to the claims.

Liang Wannian, the head of China's expert panel on the outbreak, made the remarks on Wednesday, after WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke of unspecified "difficulties" in gathering data.

Wannian told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday that the Chinese and international researchers had had access to the same data.

He also said the Chinese part of the joint research had now been completed, adding that the world now needed to look further into potential early cases of COVID-19 outside China in the next phase of its research into the origins of the pandemic.

In a briefing to the agency's member states on Tuesday, Tedros said WHO investigators who traveled to China to research the origins of COVID-19 had faced "difficulties" accessing some raw data during their four-week visit to the Chinese city of Wuhan in January.

"In my discussions with the team, they expressed the difficulties they encountered in accessing raw data," Tedros said. "I expect future collaborative studies to include more timely and comprehensive data sharing."

On the same day, the United States and 13 other countries issued a joint statement expressing concern, and called for a transparent and independent analysis and evaluation.

The comments came after the team tasked with probing the origins of the coronavirus pandemic released its final report to the public.

The report, prepared by the experts appointed by the WHO and their Chinese counterparts, said the global pandemic probably came to humans from animals and that a laboratory origin of the pandemic was considered to be "extremely unlikely."

ME