India seeks next phase of studies on origin of Covid

Sandeep Dkshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 28

India has termed the global study on the origin of Covid convened by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as “an important first step” and said the next phase of studies should begin in order to reach robust conclusions.

The stand mirrors that of the US which has also called for international experts to be allowed to evaluate the source of the coronavirus and the early days of the outbreak in a second phase of the WHO's investigation. The Biden administration has asked the US intelligence community to "redouble their efforts" to come to a conclusion on the origins of virus which invited a push back from Beijing.

“The WHO convening global study on the origin of Covid is an important first step. It stressed the need for next phase studies as also for further data and studies to reach robust conclusions. The follow-up of the WHO report and further studies deserve the understanding and cooperation of all,’’ said a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs.

A WHO team had spent four weeks in and around Wuhan in January and February though China maintains that “introduction through a laboratory incident was considered to be an extremely unlikely pathway’’.

Many media outlets in the US and Europe are highlighting the Wuhan lab-leak theory which is considered a controversial hypothesis. In order to lend credence to their hypothesis, media outlets have been quoting a US intelligence report that says three researchers at the Wuhan laboratory received treatment in a hospital in November 2019, before the virus began infecting the people in the city. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said a leak from the laboratory was “least likely” but this apprehension needed “further investigation”.

China, on the other hand, wants the US to open its laboratories for “a comprehensive study of all early cases of Covid found worldwide and a thorough investigation into some secretive bases and biological laboratories all over the world”.

The matter is unlikely to be decided soon. On Wednesday, senior WHO official Mike Ryan told the annual meeting of health ministers that consultations had been informally held with many member states to look at what happened in the next phase. “And we will continue to have those discussions in the coming weeks,” he said.