DOZENS OF STUDIES NEEDED Maria van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead on COVID-19, voiced hope that there would be further WHO-led international missions to China that would engage the country's cooperation.
She told a news conference that "more than three dozen recommended studies" must still to be carried out to determine how the virus crossed from the animal species to humans.
Reported Chinese testing for antibodies in Wuhan residents in 2019 will be "absolutely critical" to understanding the virus's origins, van Kerkhove said.
The WHO, in an editorial in the journal Science, said that detailed investigations of the earliest known and suspected cases in China prior to December 2019 were still needed, including analyses of stored blood