The World Health Organization (WHO) continues to call for China to be ‘transparent’ in sharing COVID-19 data in efforts to determine the disease’s origins, Director-General reiterated on Friday in Geneva.

Iran PressEurope: Speaking during his latest media briefing, WHO Director-General Tedros AdhanomTedros noted that the world is in a much better position now that at any time in the pandemic, which just entered its fourth year. 

For the first time, the weekly number of reported deaths in the past four weeks has been lower than when the pandemic was first declared. 

“I am confident that this year we will be able to say that COVID-19 is over as a public health emergency of international concern,” he said. 

Last Sunday, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention uploaded data to the global virus database, GISAID, related to samples taken at the Huanan market in January 2020. 

The seafood market is located in Wuhan, the city where SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, first emerged.   

Scientists from several countries downloaded and analyzed the data, which was later removed.   They have reportedly found molecular evidence that animals were sold at the market, some which, including raccoon dogs, were susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection. 219