China says delay to WHO Covid investigation 'not just about visas'

China has played down concerns that a World Health Organisation mission had been blocked from investigating the origins of Covid-19, saying discussions on access are still taking place amid a spike in local infections.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular news briefing in Beijing that the problem was "not just about visas" for the team.

The head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Tuesday he was "very disappointed" that China had not authorised the entry of the team for the investigation, which he said was a priority.

Much about the origins of Covid-19 remains unknown, and China has been sensitive about any suggestion that it could have done more in the early stages of the pandemic to stop it.

Ms Hua said there had been a "misunderstanding" and the two sides were still in discussions over the timing and other arrangements and "remain in close communication", adding: "There's no need to over-interpret this."

China's experts were also busy dealing with a renewed spike in coronavirus infections, with many locations entering a "wartime footing" to stop the virus, she said. More than 400 infections have been recorded in recent weeks after a cluster erupted in Beijing, seen as an embarrassment for a country that has sought to get to zero cases.

The 10-strong team of international experts had been due to set off in early January as part of a long-awaited mission to investigate early cases of the virus.

China has been seeking to shape the narrative about when and where the pandemic began, with senior diplomat Wang Yi saying "more and more studies" showed it had emerged in multiple regions. The WHO emergencies chief, Mike Ryan, has previously called this "highly speculative".

Since the outbreak began, foreign journalists trying to report on the impact and origins of coronavirus, including from The Telegraph, have been harassed at cemeteries in Wuhan and at caves deep in China where scientists had studied similar coronaviruses.

Beijing is so determined to stamp out dissent against its official story of what happened that authorities have "disappeared" citizen journalists who sought to report on the outbreak. A few weeks ago, one of them, Zhang Zhan, resurfaced in court where she was sentenced to four years in prison in a trial the UK criticised as "secret".

Authorities have even instructed some Wuhan residents not to speak to foreign journalists, reminding them that only praise for the government response is acceptable.

Conspiracy theorists have speculated wildly about the origins of the virus, but the global scientific consensus remains that the novel coronavirus was a natural "spillover" event.

The Chinese government has been strictly controlling all research into the origins of the virus at home, and state-owned media have played up reports that suggest the virus could have originated elsewhere. China has dismissed criticism of its handling of early cases although some, including the US president Donald Trump, have questioned its actions during the outbreak.

The United States, which has announced plans to leave the WHO, has called for a "transparent" investigation and criticised the terms under which Chinese experts conducted a first phase of research.

The mission is due to be led by Peter Ben Embarek, the WHO's top expert on animal diseases that cross the species barrier, who went to China on a preliminary mission last July.