(Bloomberg) -- A World Health Organization team of experts will be allowed to visit China on Jan. 14 to investigate the origins of the coronavirus, the Asian country’s National Health Commission said on its website on Monday.
The confirmation of a date comes after a rare public rebuke by the organization’s Director-General, who expressed disappointment last week that China was delaying final permission for the experts’ entry, even as some embarked on travel.
The origins tracing investigation will be jointly conducted with Chinese scientists after the expert team arrives, the statement said, without further details. It’s unclear if the expert team will be allowed to visit Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus first emerged last year.
China Making It Harder to Solve the Mystery of Where Covid Began
Stung by criticism that China initially covered up the extent of the crisis, state media and government figures have been pushing the possibility that the pathogen did not emerge solely in the Asian country.
The WHO team’s visit has been under negotiation for months and Monday’s statement was China’s first affirmation of the effort. The high-profile criticism from the health body, which had previously been charged with being overly deferential to China, fueled concern that Beijing is obstructing international efforts to trace the origins of a pandemic that has now killed over 1.9 million people worldwide.