Wuhan lab staff sought hospital care before Covid-19 outbreak disclosed: WSJ – MENAFN.COM

  • Date: 24-May-2021
  • Source: MENAFN
  • Sector:Healthcare
  • Country:Gulf
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Wuhan lab staff sought hospital care before Covid-19 outbreak disclosed: WSJ – MENAFN.COM

(MENAFN - Gulf Times) * Chinese foreign ministry denies that staff fell ill * Report may boost calls for wider probe into origins * Article published on eve of key WHO meeting Three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sought hospital care in November 2019, a month before China reported the first cases of Covid-19, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a US intelligence report. The newspaper said the previously undisclosed report - which provides fresh details on the number of researchers affected, the timing of their illnesses, and their hospital visits - may add weight to calls for a broader investigation into whether the Covid-19 virus could have escaped from the labouratory. The Journal said current and former officials familiar with the intelligence expressed a range of views about the strength of the report's supporting evidence, with one unnamed person saying it needed 'further investigation and additional corroboration.' The first cases of what would eventually be known as Covid-19 were reported at the end of December 2019 in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the advanced labouratory specialising in coronavirus research is located. Chinese scientists and officials have consistently rejected the lab leak hypothesis,