- Experts believe the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the COVID-19 disease originally came from bats.
- International experts would hold a press conference today at 1400 GMT (7pm) to discuss their findings.
- Beijing’s theory that the virus did not originate in China at all but was imported in frozen food was judged “possible” but very unlikely.
GENEVA: A team of international experts will present details Tuesday of their findings from a mission to China, which concluded COVID-19 probably passed to humans from a bat via an intermediary animal, all but ruling out a laboratory leak.
But the report, drafted by World Health Organization-appointed international experts and their Chinese counterparts, offers no definitive answers on how the new coronavirus jumped to humans.
AFP obtained a copy of the final report ahead of its official publication on Tuesday.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the international experts would hold a press conference Tuesday at 1400 GMT to discuss their findings, adding that all hypotheses on the pandemic’s origins remained open and needed further study.
COVID-19 has killed more than 2.7 million people worldwide in the 15 months since it emerged, forcing governments around the world to introduce restrictions that have battered the global economy.
Ahead of a meeting with world leaders, UN chief Antonio Guterres called Monday for more debt relief for the poorest countries struggling with economic fallout from the pandemic.
In the United States, there was good news about progress of its vaccine roll-out, but President Joe Biden warned Americans the battle was far from over.
Mexico, meanwhile, released new figures on excess deaths that suggest its official coronavirus death toll — already the third-highest in the world — is a massive underestimate.