China has refused to allow the World Health Organisation (WHO) to take part in investigations into the origins of COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-cov-2, the novel coronavirus.
WHO has made repeated requests to China to be part of the investigations being carried out by Chinese authorities into the origins of the pandemic.
In an interview with British broadcaster, Sky News, WHO representative in China, Dr Gauden Galea said:
We know that some national investigation is happening but at this stage, we have not been invited to join.
WHO is making requests of the health commission and of the authorities.
The origins of the virus are very important, the animal-human interface is extremely important and needs to be studied.
The priority is we need to know as much as possible to prevent the reoccurrence.
Dr Galea also told Sky News that the WHO had not been able to investigate logs from the two laboratories working with viruses in Wuhan, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control (CDC).
WHO has consistently maintained that the novel coronavirus originated in Wuhan and that it is a naturally occurring, not a manufactured, virus.