China on Wednesday slammed "unethical" critics as it faced mounting pressure over origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, after the World Health Organization chief revived the theory that the coronavirus may have leaked from a Chinese lab.

WHO-backed experts had judged it "extremely unlikely" that the virus was leaked from a Chinese lab after a politically sensitive mission to the ground-zero city of Wuhan, but the UN body's boss stressed Tuesday that "all hypotheses are open" and "warrant complete and further studies".

The United States also led a chorus of concern over the findings, with China riled by swirling accusations that it failed to give proper access and data to the investigators.

"This practice of politicising the search for the origins of the virus is extremely unethical," Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a press briefing, stressing that full access was granted to the Wuhan lab.

China was not mentioned directly by WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus or in the statement by the United States and its 13 allies, but Beijing hit back, saying it had demonstrated "its openness, transparency and responsible attitude".

The WHO team "expressed the difficulties they encountered in accessing raw data", Tedros said.

China was slammed last year by former US president Donald Trump, who had promoted the theory that the virus could have leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and accused Beijing of not being transparent about the initial outbreak.

Beijing has rejected the allegations.

- Europe struggles with surges -

As governments bicker and point fingers over its origins, the virus has spiked again in many parts of the world, including Europe, where French President Emmanuel Macron will address the nation to respond to criticism that he has let Covid-19 run out of control.

The known global Covid-19 death toll has exceeded 2.8 million, and the virus has gained fresh, devastating momentum in many countries.

Daily new cases have doubled to around 40,000 in France, and hospitals in infection hotspots such as Paris have been overwhelmed, building pressure on Macron to respond.

His prime-time television address on Wednesday will follow a weekly meeting of top ministers, with several anti-virus options reportedly under consideration including a much-resisted national lockdown.

There are similar surges elsewhere in Europe, forcing governments to reimpose unpopular restrictions.

Italy on Tuesday said it would impose a five-day quarantine on travellers arriving from other EU countries, while Germany will beef up checks along land borders to ensure people arriving have negative Covid-19 tests.

Germany is scrambling to contain a third wave of cases, with a debate raging nationwide on how to control the surge while minimising the economic and social impact of restrictions.

Authorities in Tuebingen near Stuttgart are trying to keep the historic university city open by offering free coronavirus tests -- anyone with a negative result can enjoy a day of shopping, culture or outdoor dining.

"I think it's long overdue that people consider strategies other than just closing everything," said Kathrin, 33, who was visiting a shop in the city.

- Pandemic harms gender parity -

While countries race to try and speed up vaccine rollouts, seen as crucial to defeating Covid-19, many are battling supply scarcity and logistical challenges.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison admitted Wednesday that the country will fall well short of its initial target of jabbing four million people by the end of March, as concerns grew over the glacial pace of vaccinations in the country.

In addition to the economic devastation, the pandemic has also rolled back years of progress towards gender equality, according to a report released Wednesday.

Studies have shown that the Covid-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on women, who have lost jobs at a higher rate than men, and had to take on much more of the extra childcare burden when schools closed, according to the World Economic Forum's annual Global Gender Gap Report.

The pandemic's impact on the world of entertainment was also brought into focus Tuesday as it emerged that next month's Oscars ceremony will include venues in Britain and France for international nominees unable to travel to the United States.

The Wuhan lab at the heart of the pandemic origin theory
Wuhan, China (AFP) March 31, 2021 - The Wuhan lab leak theory has been thrust back into the spotlight after the WHO chief reopened the hypotheses that the coronavirus seeped from its facilities.

World Health Organisation director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday said the laboratory leak was the "least likely" hypotheses, but still needed "further investigation."

China says full access was given to the lab and has hit out at the "politicisation" of the investigation into the cause of the global pandemic.

But Tedros has kept alive a notion that WHO experts had earlier doused as "highly unlikely".

Here are some key facts about the Wuhan Institute of Virology's lab:

- High security -

The institute houses a lab with a biosafety rating of "P4" -- the highest possible -- which is determined by the level of danger and resulting security measures posed by the pathogens studied there. P4-level pathogens include those that cause diseases such as Ebola.

The P4 lab is Asia's first and was built at a cost of 300 million yuan ($42 million), opening in 2018. It houses the largest virus bank in Asia, with more than 1,500 strains.

A P3 lab -- the biosafety level that includes coronaviruses -- has been in operation at the site since 2012.

- Critical research -

The institute studies some of the world's most dangerous diseases and previously conducted extensive investigations into the links between bats and disease outbreaks in China.

Its scientists helped shed light on the Covid-19 pathogen in the early days of the outbreak in Wuhan.

In February 2020, researchers there published work concluding that the genetic makeup of the new virus was about 80 percent similar to the SARS coronavirus, and 96 percent identical to a coronavirus found in bats.

Many scientists think the virus that causes Covid-19 originated in bats and may have jumped to people via another still-undetermined mammal, and gained traction among humans in late 2019 at a wet market in Wuhan where wildlife species were sold as food.

Liang Wannian, head of the Chinese contingent of the WHO mission, said at the mission's conclusion that animal transmission remained the likely route, but "the reservoir hosts remain to be identified".

- The 'lab leak' -

Previous US diplomatic cables reported by the Washington Post had revealed concern in Washington about safety standards in the Wuhan facility.

Shi Zhengli, one of China's leading experts on bat coronaviruses and deputy director of the P4 lab, further raised eyebrows in a June 2020 interview with Scientific American magazine in which she said she was initially anxious over whether the virus had leaked from her lab.

Subsequent checks revealed that its gene sequence differed from viruses held at the lab, and Shi said she would "bet her life" that there was no leak, according to Chinese state media.

But the theory was kept alive by the likes of Trump and his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Pompeo insisted last year that there was "significant evidence" that the virus came from the lab, while offering no such proof.

Prominent global publications including Le Monde and the Wall Street Journal, as well as scientists at Harvard and Stanford, also kept the theory alive by publishing articles or reports saying it was a possibility.

- WHO conclusions -

The WHO team's mission to Wuhan included a stop at the virology institute, where they met with Chinese scientists including Shi.

The team's leader Peter Ben Embarek said at the end of the mission that the lab-leak theory was "extremely unlikely" and "not in the hypotheses that we will suggest for future studies."

The mission found nothing to overturn the general consensus within the scientific community that the pathogen appeared to be of natural origin.

- Doubts persist -

But questions about the lab persist, with critics noting that the WHO team's investigative hands may have been tied by strict parameters set by its Chinese hosts.

Team members spent only four hours at the virology institute, just an hour at the wet market, and several days inside their hotel without venturing out into the city.

In a subsequent interview with AFP, Embarek voiced "frustration" at lack of access to raw data while in China.

On the laboratory accident hypothesis, he told reporters on Tuesday that Chinese lab staff had acknowledged they initially feared a leak.

"Even the staff in these labs told us that was their first reaction," Embarek said.

"They all went back to their records... but nobody could find any trace of something similar to this virus in their records or their samples."

Related Links
Epidemics on Earth - Bird Flu, HIV/AIDS, Ebola

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