Director-General of the WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus held a regular press conference on the COVID-19 . Photo by Xinhua reporter Chen Junxia

The Chinese government has agreed that the World Health Organization (WHO) will send experts to Beijing on a scientific plan for coronavirus tracing, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday. 

After consultation, the Chinese government agreed that the WHO experts will to cooperate and communicate with Chinese scientists and medical experts on the scientific plan for novel coronavirus tracing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a routine press conference. 

Experts from China and the WHO will draw up the working scope and tasks of an international expert group led by the WHO, Zhao said.

"We came to the basic consensus with the WHO that virus tracing is a scientific issue, which should be carried out under international research and cooperation by scientists," Zhao said.

The WHO believed that virus tracing is an ongoing process that may involve many countries and regions, and the organization will conduct similar visits to other countries and regions as necessary, Zhao said.

Past epidemics in many countries have shown that virus tracing for new viral diseases is very complex, and planning and implementing a series of scientific studies will improve the understanding of the animal hosts and transmission routes of the virus, he said.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday that WHO experts will visit China this weekend to prepare scientific plans with their Chinese counterparts for identifying the zoonotic source of the pandemic. 

Global Times