China won’t allow international experts to investigate the source of the COVID-19 outbreak until there’s a “final victory” in the fight against the virus, the nation’s UN ambassador said Wednesday.
Ambassador Chen Xu said the World Health Organization will have to wait until the virus is defeated to probe what caused the deadly pandemic to break out in Wuhan, France 24 reported.
“The top priority, for the time being, is to focus on the fight against the pandemic until we win the final victory,” Chen said. “We need the right focus and allocation of our resources.”
Chen dismissed suggestions that China was against an independent probe, saying the country isn’t “allergic to any kind of investigations, inquiries or evaluations,” according to the report.
But he claimed the current atmosphere has been sullied by “politically-motivated” accusations against the nation, as well as other players “smearing, demonizing” its response to the initial outbreak.
“We need to race with time to save lives as much as we can,” Chen said. “For whether or how the invitation will take place, we need to have the right priority setting at this moment, and on the other hand, we need the right atmosphere.”
President Trump on Monday told The Post that China is to blame for failing to halt the spread of the coronavirus in December.
“Well, it got out of that area, and it shouldn’t have,” Trump said. “It shouldn’t have been allowed to have gotten out because it got out and went all over the world. So that shouldn’t have taken place, and [China] should have never allowed it to happen.”
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