Invite WHO to your soil to investigate COVID-19 origin: China tells US

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin on Friday (June 4) said that there are several reports pointing to emergence of COVID-19 at various locations around the world including the Fort Detrick lab in the US.

Credit: Reuters

New Delhi: Even as the United States is putting up pressure on China over the investigation of alleged COVID-19 origin in Wuhan lab, the latter hit back saying that it is the US where the origin should be studied.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin on Friday (June 4) said that there are several reports pointing to the emergence of COVID-19 at various locations around the world including the Fort Detrick lab in the US.

"We hope that the U.S. can adopt a scientific and cooperative attitude like China and invite WHO experts to the U.S. to carry out research on tracing virus origins," Wenbin said in response to a question about US medical expert Dr Anthony Fauci demanding the release of the medical records of nine people who allegedly became ill in November 2019 in China.

"The U.S. should explain that as soon as possible and make due contributions to mankind's victory over the pandemic and better respond to public health emergencies in the future," he added.

Dr Fauci has called on China to release the medical records of the nine people whose ailments might provide vital clues to COVID-19 origin.

The US intelligence agencies are examining reports that researchers at a Chinese virology laboratory in Wuhan were seriously ill in 2019 a month before the first COVID-19 cases were reported.