China firmly opposes to some countries politicizing COVID-19 traceability
CGTN

China welcomed the World Health Assembly's decision on COVID-19 resolution, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Wednesday, adding that the vast majority of countries believe that the current focus is on pandemic containment rather than virus traceability, which shows that there is no position to politicize the issue of tracing virus' source.

Concerning the source of the virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) has restricted the scope of traceability research to finding animal sources, intermediate hosts and routes of transmission for better response to future outbreaks, said Zhao.

Zhao said that the WHO is playing a key leadership role in the fight against the pandemic, preventing discrimination and stigmatization, and combating misinformation about the pandemic. It is in line with China's position and the world's position to strengthen cooperation in the areas of research on diagnosis and treatment methods, drugs and vaccines, and the zoonotic source of the virus to assess the epidemic situation based on facts.

The WHO chief will conduct a global outbreak assessment in consultation with member states, draw on the experience and make recommendations for future work, and conduct an independent and comprehensive assessment of the outbreak, Zhao said, adding that a few countries cannot monopolize assessment. China will, along with the majority of countries, resolutely reject individual countries' attempts to politicize the virus traceability. China urged individual countries not to fabricate lies to make excuses for their own failures amid the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.