China OK with virus origin probe but after outbreak is controlled

Under immense global pressure over the Covid-19 pandemic, China has conceded to a draft resolution, backed by 120 nations including India, at the World Health Assembly, calling for a probe into the source of the coronavirus that has claimed over 3,00,000 lives worldwide. The outbreak started in Wuhan late last year before spreading to the rest of the world.
Support for the resolution, drafted by the European Union and pushed by Australia, swelled to 120 nations on Monday. The US did not support the resolution, but President Trump dramatically tweeted: “We’re with them”. Health secretary Alex Azar represents the US at the WHA.
The resolution sought scientific and collaborative field missions to trace the origin of the coronavirus, saying such an exercise will enable targeted interventions and a research agenda to reduce the risk of similar events in future.
The annual meeting of WHA, the decision-making body of the WHO, is being held virtually on Monday and Tuesday. It is attended by delegations from all WHO member-states and focuses on a specific health agenda prepared by the Executive Board (EB). India will take over the chairmanship of the EB next week. Health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan will address the WHA.
Pledging $2 billion in assistance to the WHO, Chinese President Xi Jinping said he would support a “comprehensive review” into the pandemic after it is “brought under control”. He said the virus “caught the world by surprise”.
Putting out his own proposals, Xi said: “We also need to continue supporting research into source and transmission routes of the virus. This work should be based on science and professionalism, led by WHO and conducted in objective and impartial manner.”
Without mentioning China by name, Azar made clear Washington considered the WHO jointly responsible. “There was a failure by this organisation to obtain the information that the world needed, and that failure cost many lives.” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, for his part, said: “WHO sounded the alarm early, and we sounded it often.”
The EU-drafted resolution called for continuing to work closely with the World Organisation for Animal Health, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN and other nations as part of the “one-health approach to identify the zoonotic source of the virus and the route of introduction to the human population. Expressing China’s backing for the resolution, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in Beijing: “...All parties have reached consensus on the text.”