The emergencies chief of the World Health Organization said he “fully expects” China to share the genetic sequences from the resurgence of coronavirus that have recently hit Beijing, even though they have not yet done so.
Chinese officials said that their examination of the virus shows it originated in Europe, but they have not yet shared the sequences with WHO or the global scientific community.
“We fully expect our colleagues in China will share that information,” said Dr. Michael Ryan at a press briefing on Monday. Ryan said the finding that this virus genome “may represent a strain commonly transmitting in Europe” is significant but that verifying the hypothesis requires the sequences be shared.
Ryan said the new cluster of cases in China was of particular concern given that Beijing had gone 50 days without a new case, but expressed confidence Chinese authorities would be able to contain it.
In a story published earlier this month, the Associated Press found China delayed sharing critical virus information with WHO for more than a week after three government labs had decoded the information.