China questions Covid origin to Wuhan ahead of WHO probe

TIL Desk/World/Beijing/ Battling global adversity over the coronavirus and bracing for a World Health Organisation inquiry over its origin, China on Friday claimed that just because COVID-19 cases were first reported in Wuhan does not mean the contagion originated from the central Chinese city.

Various outlets of the state-run Chinese media have been carrying reports in recent days stating that a number of imported food products from different countries, including a consignment of fish from India, were found to have traces of the COVID-19 alleging that the virus may have entered China through foreign routes.

Asked whether that is China’s official view too, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here that “even though China was the first to report coronavirus but doesn’t necessarily mean China is where the virus originated”.