WHO awaits China's nod on list of experts to probe origin of COVID-19

Beijing: The World Health Organization (WHO) has given Beijing a list of global experts to be part of the international investigation team to be sent to China to probe the origin of the Coronavirus and is awaiting its approval, according to a media report on Thursday.

In May, the annual meeting of World Health Assembly (WHA), the decision-making body of the Geneva-based WHO currently headed by India, passed a unanimous resolution to probe the origin of the virus. China also backed the resolution.

In August, a two-member team from the WHO which visited China completed the groundwork for the probe into the animal source and reservoirs of the COVID-19 which first emerged in Wuhan in December last year and later became a global pandemic, creating the worst health crisis across the world.

On Monday, WHO Health Emergencies Programme Executive Director Mike Ryan told a special meeting of the organisation's executive board that it has selected expert candidates from around the world for the mission and it was now up to Beijing to say who would be on the international team and when they would enter China, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

A list of candidates has been submitted to the Chinese authorities for their consideration and for next steps in order to deploy that team, Ryan told the advisory group of member state representatives, without saying when the list was sent.

At Monday's meeting, representatives from the United States, the European Union, and Australia called on the WHO to send the team and share more details about the mission, the report said.

Transparency around this work is critical, we are keen to see further information on the membership of the international team and its programme of work, Australian associate health secretary and WHO executive board member Caroline Edwards said.

However, WHO could not send a team into a member state without its permission, the Post report.

If, therefore, China would condition entry of an expert group on vetting the expert list, then from an international legal perspective, the WHO's hands are bound, Ayelet Berman, senior research fellow at the Centre for International Law at the National University Singapore told the Post.

WHO faced stringent criticism, especially from US President Donald Trump, who accused it of being a puppet of China for not acting in time to halt the spread of the COVID-19 when it broke out in Wuhan.