WHO experts to spend next two days China to find origins of coronavirus

Two World Health Organisation experts will spend the next two days in China's capital to investigate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

Of the two, one is an animal health expert and another is an epidemiologist. During their visit, they will work to fix the “scope and terms of reference” for the future mission aimed at learning how the virus jumped from animals to humans, the statement from the United Nations body said.

Scientists believe the virus may have originated in bats, then was transmitted through another mammal such as a civet cat or an armadillo-like pangolin before being passed on to people at a fresh food market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

The United States has already moved to cut ties with WHO over allegations it mishandled the outbreak and is biased toward China.

More than 120 nations in May called for an investigation into the origins of the virus at the World Health Assembly. China has insisted that WHO lead the investigation and for it to wait until the pandemic is brought under control.

Complaints included that China delayed releasing the genetic map, or genome, of the virus for more than a week after three different government labs had fully decoded the information.

China has been accused of not sharing enough data to assess how effectively the virus spread between people or what risk it posed to the rest of the world, costing valuable time.

The US, Brazil and India are continuing to see an increasing number of cases.