Cooperating to trace COVID-19 origins shared responsibilities for countries: Chinese ambassador

ROME - "Cooperating on tracing the origins of the virus is everyone's responsibility," and such research should be conducted worldwide, China's Ambassador to Italy Li Junhua has written.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has been raging around the world for over a year, causing enormous trauma to all countries," the ambassador wrote in an article published Thursday in Diplomatic Journal, an Italian online newspaper.

Noting that both China and Italy have actively shared information and cooperated with the World Health Organization (WHO) to find the origins of the virus, Li urged all countries to take the responsibility to promote origin-tracing work, saying the research should be conducted around the world.

He suggested all countries, where early infections were reported, draw from China's practice to invite WHO teams for field studies on the origins, or learn from Italy on information sharing to complete origin-tracing work together.

"From the first moment, China reported information and shared experiences in prevention and control with the World Health Organization (WHO) and affected countries," he said, adding the country has taken the lead in working together with the WHO on origin-tracing, and twice invited international experts to China for research on the source of the virus.

The research on the virus' source "must be conducted by (WHO) member states, be based on consensus and be undertaken after consultation between the WHO and the member states," Li stressed.

Meanwhile, many study reports, including some developed by US researchers, showed that the contagion might originate from several sources and break out in different spots, which is why the probe into the origins should be conducted on a global scale, he said.