WHO urges China to share raw data on origins of coronavirus

UN agency says cooperation and transparent data ‘vitally important’ to preventing future pandemics.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged China to share the raw data from its earliest cases of the coronavirus, which first emerged in its central city of Wuhan, saying on Thursday it was “vitally important” to understand the virus’s origins to prevent future pandemics. More than 4.3 million people across the world have died since the first cases were identified in Wuhan in late 2019. A team of scientists from the WHO made a long-delayed visit to the city in January this year as part of a mission to trace the origins of the virus, releasing a report in March that drew no firm conclusions on what had happened.