The World health Organization (WHO) team sent to China to investigate Wuhan pneumonia (novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19) completed its mission this week. At the Time, the Chinese side alleged that there was no evidence to determine that the virus had appeared in Wuhan, Hubei, before December of the previous year. But the team today (13) put forward a different story, and said it hoped to get more evidence from the Chinese government to find out the truth.
The German News Agency reported that one of the members of the mission, Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans, pointed out at a WHO online press conference that they found after a comprehensive survey of China’s disease statistics database that 92 people had developed similar symptoms of wulong before the Wuhan outbreak.
The Wall Street Journal also recently reported, citing the mission, that about 90 patients in central China (covering Henan, Hubei and Hunan provinces) had already developed symptoms two months before the outbreak, in October 2019.
The group’s recent blood tests did not show any antibodies, Gubermans said, but that may be because it has been too long since the onset of the disease, so the mission hopes to find out through their blood samples from the previous year’s outbreak.
Gubermans said, “(We) are negotiating with China to get permission to review the blood database.”
The mission is expected to release a summary report on the investigation next week, with a more detailed version likely to be several weeks away.
According to WHO statistics, a cumulative total of 173,526 people have been infected and 2,360,280 have died worldwide.
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