Clamour over Wuhan Covid-19 probe: China to build more bio labs
6 June, 2021 | Priyanka Sharma
Under its biosecurity law, China will provide legal cover for the establishment and operation of more bio labs. China’s move to establish new bio labs comes amid discovery of strong evidences that ...
Under global suspicion over Wuhan’s role in Covid-19 origin, China has gone ahead to operationalise a biosecurity law to provide a legal cover for the establishment and operation of more bio labs. With the new biosecurity law, China has approved the construction of 3 P4 labs, 88 P3 labs.
Chinese mouthpiece Global Times has cited China’s Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Xiang Libin as stating that China will continue to build and approve more labs specialising in advanced pathogenic microbiology with a scrupulous and scientific manner. He added that the country will continue to carry out major scientific research to enhance its biosecurity science and technological capacity against future infections.
China’s move to establish new bio labs casts aspersions on the country’s commitment towards global security, especially amid the discovery of strong evidences that Covid-19 emanated from Wuhan Institute of Virology. Although China has denied any such charges, WHO-led Covid-19 probe concluded that all hypothesis including the allegation that Covid-19 emanated from a bio lab remains open.
On the contrary, China has urged US to invite WHO to study virus origins and explain the reason behind the establishment of over 200 bio labs across the world. The statement came after Dr Fauci called upon China to public the medical records of three people who were reported to have got sick in 2019 and allegedly had coronavirus-like symptoms.