The international experts investigating the origin of the coronavirus in China left the hotel where they were in quarantine two weeks after arrival.
The World Health Organization (WHO) team got on a bus around 08:00 Dutch time and left.
Earlier this month, the researchers arrived in Wuhan, the metropolis where the virus first appeared. The Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans is also part of the team. The experts could not do fieldwork immediately after arrival because they first had to be quarantined.
Researcher Peter Daszak shared photos of his hotel room in Wuhan on Twitter. “A little sad that I have to say goodbye to my ‘gym’ and my ‘office’ where I was for the past two weeks (hint: it’s all in the same room),” he joked on the messaging service.
“Remarkably easy to be in quarantine for fourteen days. Because there was a lot of work, the days flew by. And this is a charming hotel.”
Research into the origin of the coronavirus is politically empathetic. The US has accused China of not being transparent when the virus started to spread. The virus spread around the world and has claimed the lives of at least 2.1 million people.
Worldwide, more than 100 million infections have been diagnosed, according to figures from the American Johns Hopkins University.
