The World Health Organization is sending a team to China next week to investigate the origins of the coronavirus, its head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news briefing on Monday.
The United States, the WHO's largest critic which has said it is leaving the UN agency, has called for an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus.
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President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have said it may have originated in a laboratory, although they have presented no evidence for this and China strongly denies it.
Ghebreyesus further warned that the COVID-19 pandemic is actually speeding up and criticized governments that have failed to establish reliable contact tracing to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
So far, 10,412,421 coronavirus cases have been diagnosed worldwide. The pandemic has claimed 508,228 lives. Some 5,668,668 have recovered from the virus.
"We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard reality is this is not even close to being over," Ghebreyesus said. "Although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up."
He said the solution is the same as it has been since the early days of the pandemic: "Test, trace, isolate and quarantine."
"If any country is saying contact tracing is difficult, it is a lame excuse," he stated.
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