|
| 
Published Friday, January 29, 2021
Investigation of covid-19
origins in China begins
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The World Health Organization, WHO, investigators exited a two-week quarantine Thursday in Wuhan, China, to begin their work in search of the origins of the covid-19 pandemic.
China, which for months, rejected calls for an international probe has pledged adequate access for the researchers, according to Voice of America Journal, the U.S. government news agency funded by the U.S. Congress.
The team is expected to spend several weeks interviewing people from research institutes, hospitals and a market-linked to many of the first cases.
The WHO has said the purpose of the mission is not to assign blame for the pandemic but to figure out how it started to better prevent and combat future outbreaks of disease.
“We are looking for the answers here that may save us in the future, not culprits and not people to blame,” Mike Ryan, the WHO’s top emergencies official, said earlier this month.
The novel coronavirus emerged in Wuhan in late 2019 and has since spread across the world, infecting more than 100 million people and killing about 2.1 million.
More than 120 countries have called for an independent investigation into the origins of the virus, with many governments accusing China of not doing enough to contain the spread.
"It's imperative that we get to the bottom of the early days of the pandemic in China, and we've been supportive of an international investigation that we feel should be robust and clear," White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said Wednesday.
As the investigation begins in Wuhan, the number of people infected in Costa Rica has not decreased. The statistics on the virus development provided by the Ministry of Health on Thursday confirms a continued rise of infections in the country.
• 571 new covid-19 cases are reported, bringing the total to 38,656 current active cases.
• 23,862 foreign-born people have been infected, totaling 192,637 cases since March, approximately 12.4% of the total cases. Of these, authorities confirmed the death of 32 foreign-born patients. But since October, there is no updated information about foreign-born deaths due to covid-19.
• 441 patients are being treated in public hospitals, where 175 patients are in ICU’s in delicate health conditions. Their ages range from 1 to 92-years-old. And 266 patients are in recovery rooms. Many of the remaining infected patients are quarantined in their homes.
• 151,382 patients have fully recovered, a 78.5% recovery rate of the total cases since March.
• 577,889 covid-19 tests have been conducted in Costa Rica since March, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering of Johns Hopkins University in the U.S.
• 2,599 deaths are listed as covid-19 related, approximately 1.3% death rate. Of these 980 are women and 1,619 men. The ages range from a 2-year-old to a 101-year-old.
Readers can see the current number of infected people in each district at the National Distance Education University on its Covid-19 Map.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the pandemic has killed more than 2.1 million people worldwide.
--------------------------------
How will the findings from the WHO investigative team impact China? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com
|
