WHO official says can't force China to give more information on COVID-19 origins

FILE PHOTO: National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng, Tong Yigang, professor at Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Liang Wannian, co-leader of the WHO-China joint expert team, Feng Zijian, deputy director of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and Yang Yungui, professor at Beijing Institute of Genomics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, attend a news conference on the WHO-China joint study on the origins of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Beijing, China March 31, 2021. REUTERS/Thomas Suen/File Photo

A top World Health Organization official said on Monday that the WHO cannot compel China to divulge more data on COVID-19's origins, while adding it will propose studies needed to take understanding of where the virus emerged to the "next level".

Pressed by a reporter on how the WHO will "compel" China into being more open, Mike Ryan, director of the agency's emergencies programme, said at a press conference that the "WHO doesn't have the power to compel anyone in this regard".

"We fully expect cooperation, input and support of all of our member states in that endeavour," Ryan said.

There are competing theories: that the virus jumped from animals, possibly starting with bats, to humans, or that it escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. Members of a WHO team that visited China earlier this year hunting for COVID-19's origins have said they did not have access to all data, fueling continued debate over the country's transparency..

(Reporting by John Miller, Stephanie Nebehay and Emma Farge)