WHO team in Wuhan says discussions open, meetings frank

Wuhan (China): One of the World Health Organisation investigators looking for clues into the origin of the Coronavirus in the central Chinese city of Wuhan said that the Chinese side has provided a high level of cooperation.

In a tweet, zoologist and team member Peter Daszak praised Wednesday's meetings with staff at the key Wuhan Institute of Virology, including with Deputy Director Shi Zhengli, a virologist who worked with Daszak to track down the origins of SARS that originated in China and led to the 2003 outbreak.

Extremely important meeting today with staff at WIV including Dr Shi Zhengli. Frank, open discussion. Key questions asked & answered, Daszak tweeted. The team remained at their hotel and appeared to have no field visits scheduled for Thursday.

Earlier, Daszak tweeted images of media outside the institute, saying: Thanking the press for their patience and interest in getting this news out to the world. The work is moving ahead & we look forward to being able to talk about the results as soon as possible."

The Wuhan Institute of Virology has collected extensive virus samples, leading to unproven allegations that it may have caused the original outbreak by leaking the virus into the surrounding

community.