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China 'refused access' to key Covid data for WHO

14 February 2021 03:21 (UTC +04:00)

China refused to hand over key data to the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of Covid-19, one of its members has said, APA reports citing BBC.

Microbiologist Dominic Dwyer told Reuters, the Wall St Journal and the New York Times the team requested raw patient data from early cases, what he called "standard practice",

He said they only received a summary.

China has not responded to the allegation but has previously insisted it was transparent with the WHO.

The US has urged China to make available data from the earliest stages of the outbreak, saying it has "deep concerns" about the WHO report.

Last week, the WHO team concluded it was "extremely unlikely" that the coronavirus leaked from a lab in the city of Wuhan, dismissing a controversial theory that emerged last year.

Wuhan was the first place in the world where the virus was detected, in late 2019. Since then, more than 106 million cases and 2.3 million deaths have been reported worldwide.