WHO hopes to visit China as soon as possible to study coronavirus origins

FILE PHOTO: People line up to buy takeaway food, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Beijing, China December 4, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

The World Health Organization wants to visit China "as soon as possible" to study the origins of the new coronavirus, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

"We are planning and hope to be on the ground as soon as possible," he told a news conference.

(Reporting by Emma Farge and John Revill; Editing by Alison Williams)