By Tara Rippin • Published: 16 Jan 2021 • 14:17
CREDIT: WHO Twitter
The world may never find ‘patient zero’ in its search for the origins of Covid-19, warns the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“WE need to be careful about the use of the phrase patient zero, which many people indicate as the first initial case.
“We may never find who patient zero was. What we need to do is follow the science and follow the studies,” said the technical lead on the disease, Maria Van Kerkhove.
A WHO-led team investigating the origins of Covid is to hold virtual meetings with its Chinese hosts in Wuhan, where the pandemic first emerged more than a year ago.
The WHO’s emergency committee called Friday for globally-ramped up coronavirus sequencing studies in order to combat troubling new variants stalking the globe.
The meeting was dragged forward by two weeks for urgent talks on the emerging, seemingly more contagious strains of the virus, as the death toll from the Covid-19 pandemic topped two million, according to an AFP count.
But Maria Van Kerkhove has warned: “We may never find who the patient zero is”.
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Tara Rippin is a reporter for Spain’s largest English-speaking newspaper, Euro Weekly News, and is responsible for the Costa Blanca region. She has been in journalism for more than 20 years, having worked for local newspapers in the Midlands, UK, before relocating to Spain in 1990. Since arriving, the mother-of-one has made her home on the Costa Blanca, while spending 18 months at the EWN head office in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol. She loves being part of a community that has a wonderful expat and Spanish mix, and strives to bring the latest and most relevant news to EWN’s loyal and valued readers.
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