Two WHO staff members barred from entering China due to failure to test for coronavirus antibodies

Two WHO staff members barred from entering China due to failure to test for coronavirus antibodies

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An international team of 13 scientists is due to land in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where coronavirus cases were first recorded in late 2019, on Thursday. But two members of that team remain in Singapore, WHO said in a series of tweets, after “testing positive for IgM antibodies”.
IgM antibodies are among the first potential signs of a coronavirus infection, but they can also appear in someone who has been vaccinated or previously infected (but is no longer a carrier) of the virus. False positives are also possible with these tests.

Since November 2020, travelers flying to China have to report negative results for an IgM antibody test and a PCR test before being allowed to enter.

The scientists in question are being tested again and had previously been tested and found negative for coronavirus several times, the organization said, adding that scientists who were able to travel to China “will begin their work immediately during the 2-week quarantine protocol for international travelers. ”

At a regular press conference on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the country “will strictly follow the relevant epidemic prevention regulations and requirements and provide corresponding support and facilities for experts. WHO who come to China to conduct international cooperation to trace the origin of the virus. “

Asked about the two scientists denied entry, Zhao declined to comment, instructing the reports to ask “the competent authorities”.

State broadcaster CGTN reported on Thursday that the WHO team “underwent throat swabs and serum antibody tests at the airport” on arrival in the country.

Health workers stand next to the buses in an isolated section, where arriving travelers are quarantined at Wuhan International Airport, China, on January 14, 2021, after the arrival of a World Health Organization team (WHO) investigating the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Delayed trip

This is the second delay for the WHO team, which was due to arrive in China earlier this month, but was prevented from flying there by the authorities, generating a rare disapproval from the United Nations agency.

“I am very disappointed by this news,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “I have been in contact with senior Chinese officials and once again made it clear that the mission is a priority for WHO and the international team.”

Tedros added that WHO is “eager to start the mission as soon as possible” and that he has been assured that Beijing is speeding up the internal procedure for “the fastest possible dispatch”.

That deployment started this week, when the majority of the team arrived in Wuhan, although they are limited in what they can do when they end a mandatory two-week quarantine.

Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist who heads the Viroscience Department at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam and is part of the research team headed to China, said earlier this month that they were “ready to go”.

Koopmans said they were told that nothing is prohibited while in China and that the team will work in collaboration with their Chinese colleagues “examining the data, talking to experienced people and concluding what has been done and what can be built on.”

She said it is important to understand the origins of how the virus spread to humans because there is “no country that is not at risk of developing diseases. It is something we need to understand, so that the whole world can prepare”.

“We really need to be patient and not judge. It is meticulous work, it will take time,” said Koopmans.

Political tensions

The United States and Australia have criticized the way China deals with the early stages of the pandemic, accusing Beijing of minimizing its severity and preventing an effective response until too late.

Outgoing US President Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed China for the global pandemic and announced that the US would end its relationship with WHO, saying that China had not adequately reported the information it had about the coronavirus and pressured WHO to “cheat the world”.
The United States requires transparency in WHO’s operations in China. In November, Garrett Grigsby of the United States Department of Health and Human Services told the WHO assembly that the terms of the investigation into China “have not been negotiated transparently” and “the investigation itself appears to be inconsistent” with his mandate .
A collection of confidential documents obtained by CNN last year from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Hubei province – where the virus was first detected in 2019 – showed how the Chinese authorities gave the world more optimistic data than they had access internally, initially underreporting the number of cases during the early stages of the outbreak.
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As countries around the world struggle with new outbreaks and outbreaks of infection, China appears to be recovering. Last month, the country recorded positive economic growth for the second consecutive quarter.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi praised China’s anti-pandemic efforts at home and abroad, saying the country “launched a global emergency humanitarian campaign” and “helped build consensus on a global response to Covid-19” .

As the WHO team prepared to embark, Chinese officials and state media questioned the origins of the virus, with Wang himself saying that “more and more research suggests that the pandemic was probably caused by separate outbreaks around the world” .

CNN’s Beijing office contributed reporting.

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