The head of the World Health Organisation said investigations into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic in China were being hampered by the lack of raw data on the first days of its spread in Wuhan.
"We ask China to be transparent and open and to cooperate," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference in Geneva on Thursday.
"We owe it to the millions who suffered and the millions who died to know what happened," he said.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn also called on China to make it possible for investigations into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic to continue, saying more information was needed, according to a Reuters report.
Also read: China refused to share raw data on early Covid cases with WHO team
Speaking during a visit to the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva on Thursday, Spahn said,"I call on China to make it possible for the investigations into the origins of COVID to be continued.
Dr. Tedros had also said on Saturday after the G 7 leaders meeting that preparations for the probe’s next steps were under way and that the issue of the origin of the virus was discussed at the G-7 meet which he attended via video conference, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
An initial WHO probe into the origins of the coronavirus, which concluded that a lab leak in China was unlikely, was criticized by several governments.
Also read: US asks China to come clean on Covid-19 data from Wuhan
“As you know we will need cooperation from the Chinese side,” he said. “We need transparency to understand or know or find the origin of this virus…after the report was released there were difficulties in the data sharing, especially in the raw data.”
President Biden has ordered a fresh U.S. intelligence inquiry into the origins of the pandemic. U.S. intelligence has focused on two scenarios—whether the pandemic started as a result of human contact with infected animals, or in a laboratory accident. U.S. intelligence agencies are divided on whether there is insufficient evidence currently to prove either one. Several Western leaders have supported a fresh WHO investigation that explores all possible hypotheses.
Last week, the US and the UK had extended support to a "timely, transparent and evidence-based independent process" for the next phase of the WHO-convened study of COVID-19 origins.
"We will also support a timely, transparent and evidence-based independent process for the next phase of the WHO-convened COVID-19 origins study, including in China, and for investigating outbreaks of unknown origin in the future," a joint statement said after US President Joe Biden met British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday.
