WHO pushes back on Wuhan transparency questions

Officials at the World Health Organization pushed back against suggestions that the U.N.-led team investigating the origins of the pandemic in China is not getting enough access or data during its ongoing visit to Wuhan.

WHO's COVID-19 technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove said the team, comprised of experts from 10 countries, has plans to visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology, among other sites.

"We need to give them the space to be able to carry out this scientific study," she said, in response to suggestions that China has been less than transparent about how the outbreak began. WHO's team arrived in Wuhan last month after a months-long delay to investigate the animal origins of COVID-19.

Dr Michael Ryan, WHO's emergencies chief, said the agency was continuing to ask for more data and said anyone with information about how the pandemic started should share it with the organization.