China defended its approach to sharing Covid data and collaborating with global agencies after the World Health Organization urged the country to provide more information to help uncover the origins of the virus.
Mao Ning, a foreign ministry spokesperson, told reporters on Tuesday that China had shared more data and research results on Covid than any other country.
“China is the only country that organised experts to share traceability progress with the WHO on many occasions,” Mr Mao said during a press briefing.
The comments came after the WHO released a statement on Monday reiterating its appeal for access to additional data to better understand the origins of the virus. The UN agency stressed that uncovering how Covid emerged was critical to preventing future pandemics.
The first cases of Covid were confirmed in Wuhan in late 2019 and the virus soon spread throughout the world. Beijing was soon facing international scrutiny over transparency of its early data and cooperation with global research efforts.
The WHO recorded almost 760 million Covid cases and 6.9 million deaths worldwide. The agency declared the pandemic over in 2023, but stressed that the disease would be a permanent reminder of the potential for new viruses to emerge with devastating consequences.
China pushed back against the call for additional investigations inside the country. It said research into the origins of the virus should be expanded to other countries.
“On the issue of Covid traceability, China has shared the most data and research results and made the greatest contribution to global traceability research,” Mr Mao said.
In early 2023, Chinese scientists uploaded data from the initial days of the pandemic to a global database revealing DNA from several animal species, including raccoon dogs, in environmental samples that had tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It supported the hypothesis that raccoon dogs could have been key conduits for the virus.
An international team of researchers analysing the data suggested the presence of raccoon dogs at Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Market, a major early outbreak site, was a significant clue to the virus’s origins.
China insisted that it had fully cooperated with investigations into the origins of the pandemic. Mr Mao said that WHO experts who visited China in 2021 “went to all the places they wanted to go and met all the people they wanted to see”.
Additional reporting by agencies.
