Wuhan lab staff sought hospital care before Covid:Report

A report in the Wall Street Journal has disclosed that three researchers from China based Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sought hospital care in November 2019, before China disclosed the COVID-19 pandemic. The WSJ has cited a previously undisclosed US intelligence report- which provides fresh details on the number of researchers affected, the timing of their illnesses, and their hospital visits - may add weight to calls for a broader probe of whether the COVID-19 virus could have escaped from the laboratory.The United States, Norway, Canada, Britain and other countries in March expressed concerns about the WHO-led COVID-19 origins study, and called for further investigation and full access to all pertinent human, animal and other data about the early stages of the outbreak.

A National Security Council spokeswoman had no comment on the Journal's report but said the Biden administration continued to have "serious questions about the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, including its origins within the Peoples Republic of China." She said the US government was working with the WHO and other member states to support an expert-driven evaluation of the pandemic's origins "that is free from interference or politicization."

China's foreign ministry  on Sunday, noted that a WHO-led team had concluded a lab leak was extremely unlikely after a visit in February to the virology institute. "The U.S. continues to hype the lab leak theory," the ministry said in response to a request for comment by the Journal. "Is it actually concerned about tracing the source or trying to divert attention?" China refused to give raw data on early Covid-19 cases to the WHO-led team probing the origins of the pandemic, according to one of the team’s investigators, Reuters reported in February, potentially complicating efforts to understand how the outbreak began.