WHO Photo:VCG

To probe the origin of the COVID-19 virus is a scientific task, and World Health Organization experts' team needs to make similar trips to other countries, in addition to China's Wuhan, Chinese officials said Wednesday, a day before the WHO experts reaches Wuhan.

Officials from the National Health Commission said at a press conference that finding the virus origin is a scientific question, and they suggested conducting similar visits to other countries to achieve this objective. 

Experts from the World Health Organization will fly from Singapore to China on Thursday to work with Chinese medical experts to investigate the source of COVID-19. The team will undergo quarantine when they reach Wuhan, in central Hubei Province.

WHO experts will communicate with Chinese medical experts by video during their quarantine period, an NHC official said at the press conference. 

Chinese CDC deputy director Feng Zijian said he has no answers as to what the intermediate host of the novel coronavirus was, or how the virus jumped from animals to humans, and China's medical experts will work closely with the WHO experts' team to try to probe its source.

"China has been calling for collective research by the international community into this virus. When the WHO team reaches Wuhan, Chinese experts will work closely with them to fulfill their job," Feng said.