Australia On Why China Should Give WHO Permission To Investigate The Origin Of COVID-19

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JAKARTA - Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne has called on China to provide access to a team of virologists from the World Health Organization (WHO) to investigate the origins of COVID-19. Australia does not want any more delays in this precarious matter.

"We hope that the permits required for the WHO team's trip to China can be issued without delay," said Payne. Previously, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed disappointment that China had not given permission to the WHO virus expert team to enter the country.

Quoting Reuters, Thursday, January 7, 2021, Payne reiterated the importance of scientific studies organized by WHO. Payne said: We look forward to the findings from an international field mission to China.

The new coronavirus is believed to have first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019. Since then the virus has spread globally, infecting more than 86 million people and killing more than 1.8 million.

Australia has been at the forefront of calling for an independent investigation into the origin of COVID-19. The loud calls have made relations with China worse.

China, Australia's main trading partner, has since restricted beef imports. They also imposed tariffs on Australian wine and asked mills to stop buying cotton into Australia.

Though China has agreed

In May 2020, WHO agreed to launch an investigation into the global response to the pandemic after more than one hundred countries signed a resolution calling for an independent investigation. Tedros said the WHO was "eager to carry out the mission as quickly as possible" and he had been given assurances that China was speeding up internal procedures for "deployment as early as possible."

But Chinese authorities have suddenly said they have not approved the necessary permits for a team of virologists to enter the country. Whereas China had previously agreed to the investigation.

China is the only country to claim that COVID-19 can be transmitted through frozen food shipments. China has even blamed the new outbreaks in Beijing and Dalian on contaminated shipping goods.

There is a study by the Chinese Center for Disease Control showing that blood samples from 4.43 percent of the Wuhan population contained COVID-19 antibodies. These results indicate that the city's transmission rate is much higher than previously known.

Research in Italy suggests COVID-19 may have existed in Europe months before China's first official case. Chinese state media used the research to support the theory that COVID-19 originated abroad and entered China via contaminated frozen food or foreign athletes competing at the World Military Games in Wuhan in October 2019.