Chinese researchers have developed a set of equipment that could inactivate coronavirus with electron beam irradiation.
The technology has passed an expert panel review and is set to be applied in cold chain food packaging disinfection, informed in a press conference held in south China’s Shenzhen City on Monday.
China General Nuclear Power Corporation, Tsinghua University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases and the Third People’s Hospital of Shenzhen were involved in the project, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The news comes on the same day when a top Chinese medical expert said on Wednesday there was no factual basis to accusations that China did not share data with international researchers appointed by the World Health Organization to look into the origins of COVID-19.
Following the publication of the joint study into the origins of COVID-19 by China and the WHO on Tuesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said China had withheld data from the international investigators.
But Liang Wannian, who was co-leader of the joint study, told reporters that researchers from both sides had access to the same data throughout the investigation and that the assertions about lack of access were not accurate.
“Of course, according to Chinese law, some data cannot be taken away or photographed, but when we were analysing it together in Wuhan, everyone could see the database, the materials – it was all done together,” he said.
Responding to allegations that the expert panel did not have access to complete datasets and samples, Liang said no scientist ever had perfect information.
He also rejected complaints that the publication of the report had been repeatedly delayed, noting that “every sentence, every conclusion, every piece of data” needed to be verified by both sides before it could be released.
(With inputs from IANS and Reuters)