The World Health Organization WHO’s Corona Origin Investigation Team visited the Wuhan Virus Research Institute, which is suspected of being the source of Corona 19. China insisted that the United States should also be investigated.
Beijing Correspondent Song Wook reports.
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Under strict security, a vehicle carrying the WHO’s COVID-19 origin investigation team arrives at the Wuhan Virus Research Institute.
[피터 다스작/WHO 조사팀 : 연구소에 있는 주요 인사들을 모두 만나서 필요한 모든 질문을 하기를 기대합니다.]
Wuhan Virus Research Institute, which has the only biosafety level 4 laboratory in China, is about 12 km away from the Huanan Fish Market, where the first outbreak of Corona 19 occurred.
As it was confirmed that the Wuhan Research Center studied bats, which are believed to be the natural host of Corona 19, there have been suspicions that it is the origin of the virus.
The former Trump administration in the United States claimed there was evidence of the leak, but the institute also demanded an apology from the United States, saying there was no leak.
The WHO research team, who visited the lab for three and a half hours, also interviewed researcher Jeong-ri Su.
Researcher Shi, a bat-related virus expert and dubbed’bat woman’, has been a key figure in the controversy over the leak.
The Chinese government, which stressed that it is actively cooperating with the WHO investigation, said it also needed an investigation into the United States.
[왕원빈/중국 외교부 대변인 : (2019년 12월) 일부 미국 헌혈자 혈액 샘플에서 코로나19 항체가 발견됐는데, 이는 당시 코로나19가 이미 미국에 출현했다는 것을 의미합니다.]
China, which denies the origin of Corona 19 in Wuhan, is expected to further assert that the WHO should investigate other countries and regions as well.
(Video coverage: Choi Deok-hyun, Video editing: Kim Ho-jin)