The scientist who led the WHO’s Covid fact-finding mission to Wuhan has revealed the first evidence that the virus was circulating widely in China before Beijing alerted the world to its existence.
Peter Embarek said his team have discovered there were at least 13 Covid variants in Wuhan in December last year, suggesting the virus had been in the human population for some time to allow these different strains to develop.
He also revealed that up to 1,000 people in Wuhan could have been infected in early December – an estimate based on Chinese data that showed 174 severe cases of the disease.
