Wuhan's virus fire alarm trigger does not necessarily point to coronavirus origin: WHO

World Health Organization's emergency program executive director Michael Ryan said today that Wuhan's surveillance system was triggered by COVID-19 but it does not mean that is where the disease originated.

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"One must remember that there was a specific surveillance system in place in Wuhan for picking up clusters of atypical pneumonia. It was there for a very specific purpose and the fact that that fire alarm was triggered doesn't necessarily mean that that is where the disease crossed from animals into humans," Michael Ryan said.

Ryan asserted that "more extensive, retrospective epidemiologic study" was required to look at the "first cases and clusters in Wuhan and to fully understand the links between those cases" to understand "at what point, in Wuhan or elsewhere, was the animal-human species barrier breached."

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had said on Monday that the team that had travelled to China had concluded its mission to lay the groundwork for further joint efforts to identify the virus origins.

Tedros had stated that epidemiological studies will begin in Wuhan to identify the "potential source of infection" from the early cases reported. The WHO team will coordinate with Chinese scientists to ascertain how the disease jumped from animals to humans. The extensive investigation will also be overseen by the Chinese government.

Tedros had warned on Monday that there may never be a "silver bullet" to fight the virus and there might never be as he and cautioned countries to enforce health measures like wearing masks, ensure social distancing, and to undertake virus testing and tracing on a large scale.

The message to people and governments is clear: "Do it all"," Tedros said. The WHO chief said that there are "concerns that we may not have a vaccine that may work, or its protection could be for just a few months," while adding"until we finish the clinical trials, we will not know."