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- China: WHO team to visit key Wuhan sites in coronavirus origins probe
China: WHO team to visit key Wuhan sites in coronavirus origins probe
Wuhan Institute of Virology, Huanan market, Wuhan CDC laboratory on list of facilities to visit, WHO says
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![A man wearing a mask is silhouetted as the sun sets along the riverbank in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province, on January 15, 2021.](https://cdn.i24news.tv/uploads/69/0e/4d/73/5f/27/ab/40/66/9d/9b/9f/b4/f4/46/9d/690e4d735f27ab40669d9b9fb4f4469d.jpg?width=1000)
Experts from the World Health Organization met Chinese officials Friday ahead of their first site visits in Wuhan for a coronavirus origins probe which will take in a food market presumed to be "ground zero" of the pandemic.
The fieldwork was set to begin in earnest in the afternoon, after being hobbled by delays, as experts left their 14-day quarantine following the arrival in China on Thursday.
The team will visit hospitals, as well as meeting scientists, first responders and some of the early patients to be hit by the then-unknown coronavirus that has gone on to kill more than two million people across the world and flatline the global economy.
Crucially, "field visits will include the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Huanan market, Wuhan CDC laboratory", the WHO said in a tweet late Thursday - three sites now indelibly linked with the virus.
The Huanan market, which remains boarded up, is believed to have been the outbreak's first major cluster.
Meanwhile, the Wuhan Institute of Virology houses a virus testing facility, with one of the hypotheses on coronavirus origins suggesting it may have escaped the lab in an accident.
The highly politicized mission has been beset by delays with China refusing access until mid-January, while Washington has requested a "robust and clear" investigation.
China on Thursday warned the US against "political interference" during a trip which the WHO insists will be tethered tightly to the science behind how the virus jumped to humans.