WHO coronavirus probe begins with fieldwork in ground-zero Wuhan
Members of the WHO team in Wuhan
Experts from the World Health Organisation visited a Wuhan hospital Friday as the fieldwork began in a closely watched coronavirus origins probe that will take in a food market presumed to be "ground zero" of the pandemic.
The WHO investigation has been hobbled by delays, and there are fears over access and the strength of evidence a year after the virus emerged in the central Chinese city.
The team met Chinese officials Friday and then left their Wuhan hotel in a fleet of cars, trailed by a media pack reflecting the intense global scrutiny on a visit whose aim is to establish how the virus was transferred from animals to humans.
The Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and WesternMedicine -- where some of the earliest Covid-19 patients were admitted -- is among the field visits.
The WHO said the team will later head to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Huanan market, and the Wuhan CDC laboratory, three sites now indelibly linked with the pandemic.
Details of the trip are being relayed via Twitter rather than Chinese authorities. Team member Peter Daszak described the first site visit as "extremely important".
)
The Royals enter the Doctor Who universe: King Charles and Queen Camilla beam into Commonwealth Games in TARDIS
)
Mumbai's elite clubs under scanner: FDA suspends food licences of five iconic clubs over serious hygiene violations
)
'First dumb AI': Meta AI blocks Indian PM Modi's video in his own country, allows abuse ads and deletes livelihoods without explanation
)
Assam floods 2026: Salman Khan, Alia Bhatt and other Bollywood celebrities extend support to affected families
)
India avoids higher US tariff, secures lower 10% rate. Here's how
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
Meet top 5 batters with most Test runs in IND vs SL
)
He predicted COVID-19 and 2008 economic crisis, was labeled fearmonger. Now he has another dire warning
)
69th Grammy Awards: BTS decline music submissions after Recording Academy introduces Asian Pop category
)
Flesh Impact: Dakota Johnson transforms as Marilyn Monroe for Maggie Gyllenhaal's short film | See pics
)
Alert for torrential rains across Jammu division; flash flood risk over next five days
)
28-year-old woman PhD scholar dies of electrocution on Panjab University campus
)
Trump pops THIS, then appears to doze off at Lindsey Graham’s funeral: Watch
)
5 Overs, 5 Wickets and ZERO Runs: Justin Greaves bowls world record spell against Pakistan| WATCH
)
Cat’s bizarre reaction before Japan earthquake goes viral: Did it detect the tremors?
)
3.6mn people track 24hr Qantas flight from Melbourne to Toulouse: Pilot shifts, fuel tank and other details
)
Commonwealth Games 2026 Day 7: India's full schedule, medal events and match timings
)
After BTS' Grammys boycott, HYBE breaks silence: 'This is not a boycott at the company level'
)
Was stone-laden truck planted at Jantar Mantar before CJP march? Delhi Police reveals truth about ‘conspiracy’ claim
)
NEET Protests riddled with misinformation? Delhi Police blocks 480 Pakistan-based handles spreading 'fake news' since Operation Sindoor
)
You are a 'Naked Official' in China if you hold high posts and have children or spouse abroad. What about India?
)
'Why so much hate?' Netanyahu breaks silence on New York visit amid Mamdani's arrest threat
)
North Korean colonel killed by firing squad for stealing grain as 'deeply shaken' officers watched
)
Russia-Ukraine War: Putin's big warning amid Ukraine war escalation
)
Trump says Iranian school bombing photos could be AI-generated - 'I don’t think...'
)
Giant iceberg flips violently near Greenland exposing its underside - 'I didn't know they could do that'
)
‘Dangerous escalation’: US, Saudi strike Iran-backed group in Iraq; at least 20 killed
)
'Broader struggle for democracy...': Greta Thunberg joins Indian students protest in London - What she said
)
Netanyahu tells Trump Israel may have 'no choice' but to strike Iran again: Report
)
Iran launches first attack on US forces since Trump halted strikes, missiles intercepted
)
‘Unparliamentary language’: Rahul Gandhi sparks uproar in Lok Sabha over ‘idiot’ remark
)
Watch a SpaceX rocket crash into the moon at 8,750 km/hr on THIS day
)
₹16 crore Dehradun bridge approach road collapses just 17 days after inauguration, repaired within 12 hours
)
Assam flood toll rises to 75 as seven drown in Sivasagar; CM Himanta announces ₹9 lakh aid for victims' families
)
Jennifer Lopez's ex-husband Ojani Noa claims he confronted Sean 'Diddy' Combs over alleged affair
The Huanan market -- which remains boarded up -- is believed to have been the first major cluster of infections, while former US president Donald Trump had pushed an unsubstantiated theory that the virus escaped from a testing facility at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The mission's exact itinerary remains unclear.
The WHO insists the probe will be tethered tightly to the science behind how the virus jumped to humans.
Beijing is desperate to take the air out of the blame game and instead train attention on its handling and recovery from the outbreak.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman on Friday flagged the visit as "a part of global research" into the pandemic.
China has pushed the idea that the virus existed abroad before it was discovered in Wuhan, with state media citing the presence of the virus on imported frozen food packaging and scientific papers saying it had been circulating in Europe in 2019.
China's foreign ministry has also hinted that the sudden closure of a US army laboratory at Fort Detrick in Maryland in July 2019 was linked to the pandemic.
China's National Health Commission says 4,636 people have died in the country as a result of the virus. The nation's GDP grew 2.3 percent in 2020, the only major economy to do so.
In comparison, more than 400,000 Americans have died so far as the sickness rips through its population and economy, while Britain recorded its 100,000th fatality this week.