Name: Coronavirus pandemic: China blocks World Health Organisation officials access to Wuhan
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Coronavirus pandemic: China blocks World Health Organisation officials access to Wuhan

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Payne urges China to let WHO investigators access WuhanWe’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.DismisscloseAdvertisementBy Log in, or to save articles for later.Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text sizeAdvertisementAustralian Foreign Minister Marise Payne has called on China to let a team from the World Health Organisation into the country to investigate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, after Beijing appeared to block the officials from entering the country.The WHO says China is refusing to grant its officials access to Wuhan as part of the inquiry into the global pandemic.Australia led calls for the independent inquiry that was eventually backed by a global coalition of 137 countries, including China, at a meeting of the World Health Assembly in May.Senator Payne said Australia had "consistently sought transparency in relation to the origins of, and responses to the coronavirus, as have other countries"."The WHO-convened scientific study is an important part of this work and we look forward to the findings from the international field mission to China," she said."We hope that the necessary permissions for the WHO team’s travel to China can be issued without delay.""During this global pandemic that has affected all countries, international co-operation and partnerships will maximise our ability to respond, and to equip us for the next pandemic."The establishment of the inquiry came amid concerns over Beijing's early cover-up of the virus and the role the WHO played in alerting the world to the public health crisis.Australia's demands for the investigation are, in part, blamed for the deterioration in the Australia-China relationship, with China cutting off billions of dollars worth of trade in retaliation.AdvertisementWorld Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said two members of the investigative team had already left their home countries for Wuhan, as agreed in advance with China, when it became clear that Beijing had not issued the necessary permission for the team to enter the country."I'm very disappointed with this news given that two members had already begun their journey and others were not able to travel at the last minute," he told a news conference in Geneva."I have been in contact with senior Chinese officials and I have once again made it clear the mission is a priority for WHO and the international team.""We're eager to get the mission under way as soon as possible," he said.Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he had been "assured that China is speeding up the internal procedures for the earliest possible deployment".But in later questioning, it was not clear when they would be permitted entry.Dr Michael Ryan from WHO said the officials were not given visa clearances; one official was sent back home and the other is staying in a third country until China grants entry."We trust and we hope that this is just a logistic and bureaucratic issue [and] will be resolved very quickly," he said."This is frustrating and as the Director-General has said this is disappointing. We trust in good faith we can solve these issues in coming hours and recommence the deployment of the team as urgently as possible."Adhanom Ghebreyesus' rare rebuke of China comes amid ongoing criticism by the United States and Australia of WHO's response to the pandemic, which was first detected in Wuhan at the end of 2019.The Trump administration withdrew from the WHO claiming the organisation had been corrupted by China. President-elect Joe Biden is poised to get the US to rejoin after his inauguration.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has previously claimed, without evidence, that The WHO strongly rejects the accusation.China strictly controls the flow of any information coming from its own research into the virus' origins. The Associated Press obtained a notice from China's cabinet, marked, "not to be made public", that required all findings by any company or institution had to be cleared by the State Council. It said communication and publication of research had to be orchestrated like "a game of chess" under instructions from Xi.Log in, or to save articles for later. is a journalist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in London. is political correspondent for The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age.Advertisement

Payne urges China to let WHO investigators access WuhanWe’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.DismisscloseAdvertisementBy Log in, or to save articles for later.Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text sizeAdvertisementAustralian Foreign Minister Marise Payne has called on China to let a team from the World Health Organisation into the country to investigate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, after Beijing appeared to block the officials from entering the country.The WHO says China is refusing to grant its...

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Coronavirus pandemic: China blocks World Health Organisation officials access to Wuhan

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