A new analysis of genetic samples collected from a seafood market in central China's Wuhan city shows the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in raccoon dogs sold at the venue, strengthening the case for the natural origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a team of international experts.
"The intelligence community and the rest of the government are still looking at this. There's not been a definitive conclusion, so it's difficult for me to say, nor should I feel like I should have to defend press reporting about a possible preliminary indication here," National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters at a daily White House news conference.
The global health agency has asked Chinese health officials to share data on genetic sequencing, hospitalisations, deaths and vaccinations.
They agreed to continue technical exchanges to help end the epidemic worldwide as soon as possible, it said.
The new report highlights how different parts of the intelligence community have arrived at disparate judgments about the pandemic's origin.
"We continue to call on China to be transparent in sharing data and to conduct the necessary investigations and share the results. Understanding how the pandemic began remains both a moral and scientific imperative," Ghebreyesus said.
China, besides denying the United States allegations that COVID-19 has emerged from a bio-lab in Wuhan, also rejected that it emanated from a wet market in the central Chinese city from bats or pangolins before infecting humans.
The city, which reported the first case of COVID-19 in late 2019, has also upgraded its epidemic response measure, locking down the area where local COVID-19 infections have been reported while upgrading its risk levels, Chinese state media Global Times reported.
On Sunday, India airlifted a second batch of 323 stranded Indians and seven Maldivian citizens from coronavirus-hit Wuhan city, taking the total number of people evacuated to 654.
President Xi, who attended a meeting in Beijing to double efforts in coordinating the prevention and control of the COVID-19 outbreak, said the epidemic 'has the fastest transmission, widest range of infection and has been the most difficult to prevent and control'.
The virus that has so far killed 170 people and affected at least over 7,000 others in China is a novel strain not seen before. WHO's standard recommendations for the general public to reduce exposure to and transmission of a range of illnesses are listed here.
The Indian Embassy in China has also operationalised two helplines which are open to respond to any concerns of Indians in that country as the death toll due to the virus has risen to 56.
The death toll in China's coronavirus rose sharply to 425 with 64 deaths on Monday and the number of those infected with the deadly disease rose to 20,438, Chinese health authorities said on Tuesday.
Three medical students studying at the Wuhan University, all natives of Kerala, who returned to India on their own recently and self-reported at a hospital in the state have tested positive for the respiratory virus.
Trump has repeatedly blamed China for the coronavirus pandemic which originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year and accused Beijing of suppressing the details of the contagion.
Asian Paints, HUL, TCS, Tech Mahindra, Reliance Industries, UltraTech Cement were among the top laggards in the Sensex pack.
The virus, which has infected more than 14,562 people, continues to spread beyond China.
A total of 25,446 Chinese made electronic and Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) were seized from the warehouse on Old Airport Road during the recent raids.
He voiced concern that confusion, complacency and inconsistency in public health measures and their application are driving transmission and costing lives. Cautioning that the disease is not flu, he said young, healthy people have died from the coronavirus.
The passenger was isolated and shifted to the civic-run Naidu Hospital after the flight arrived at the Pune airport around 7 am, an Air India official said.
China's Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui said the event was just the first step in Sino-India cooperation on Afghanistan and collaboration will deepen in future.
World leaders gathered at the G7 Summit in Cornwall discussed the possibility that a laboratory leak in central China's Wuhan city may have a connection with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) chief saying all hypotheses behind the origins of the deadly disease remain in play.
Australia's medicines and medical devices regulator on Monday formally recognised India's Covaxin, a vaccine against the coronavirus as the country's border was reopened for the first time in nearly 20 months.
US intelligence agencies said they will 'rigorously' examine the emerging information to determine if the COVID-19 outbreak began through contact with infected animals or due to an accident at a laboratory in China.
China will carry out major scientific research to enhance its biosecurity science and technological capacity against future infectious diseases, state-run Global Times quoted Xiang as saying.
As the virus continued to spread at an alarming rate, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday warned officials of punishment if they shirked responsibility in tackling the virus outbreak.
A new provincial draft law in China imposing heavy penalties on unmarried women bearing children has come under severe public criticism.
The "exponential increase is largely due to the recent inflow of people brought in from Taftan after a purported quarantine".
The reduced severity of Omicron is good news for now, but it is the result of an "evolutionary mistake" as Covid-19 is transmitting very efficiently and there is no reason for it to become milder, indicating that the next variant could be more virulent, a leading Indian-origin scientist from the University of Cambridge has warned.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for undiminished vigilance on the prevention and control work of the COVID-19 as the situation in the Wuhan City and Hubei Province remains severe
The Wuhan local administration earlier announced that people who are not quarantined and seeking special treatment or stranded in the city can leave in batches.
The virus has infected over 6,71,000 people and claimed more than 33,000 lives, the highest for any country in the world.
After launching the world's longest high-speed rail line, China on Friday opened its subway line across the mighty Yangtze River to connect the two sides of Wuhan, the most populous city in Central China.
It said India will continue to take 'robust and decisive' steps to ensure its national security.
The three Indian companies are Alpha Design Technologies Pvt Ltd, Bharat Forge Ltd and Medha Servo Drives Pvt Ltd, the space organisation said in a statement on Friday.
The IMF on Tuesday projected an impressive 12.5 per cent growth rate for India in 2021, stronger than that of China, the only major economy to have a positive growth rate last year during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Washington-based global financial institution, in its annual World Economic Outlook ahead of the annual Spring meeting with the World Bank, said the Indian economy is expected to grow by 6.9 per cent in 2022. Notably in 2020, India's economy contracted by a record eight per cent, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said as it projected an impressive 12.5 per cent growth rate for the country in 2021.
Residents have been advised against leaving their homes apart for four activities -- purchasing essential items, medical care or caregiving, exercise and study/work.
The deadly coronavirus is wreaking havoc globally, killing over 50 people in Iran, 34 in Italy and 22 in South Korea.
Coming ahead of the transition of power from Donald Trump's administration to President-elect Joe Biden's administration after the November 3 US presidential election, the detailed policy document highlights that China is undermining the security, autonomy and economic interests of many nations in the region.
"We raced against time and were the first country to report cases to the world," Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said in interviews to the official media over the weekend.
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