(Screenshot of Sooth China Morning Post report)

China “certainly did not conceal the relevant data on the epidemic.” South China Morning Post on Tuesday quoted the words of Zhang Jixian, who is the first person to report the COVID-19 outbreak in China, in an interview.

Zhang Jixian, the director of respiratory medicine at the Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, “hit back at international criticism of China’s early handling of the outbreak”.

South China Morning Post also quoted his words, “After I first reported the outbreak situation, we started to regularly report the epidemic information to the world beginning from January 3, 2020...the facts are so clear, how can it be called a cover-up?”

In order to discover how the “virus jumped from animals to people”, a research team composed of ten international scientists who are “part of the WHO-led mission” will come to China within weeks. Their job is to interview early patients and visit the seafood market where early cases were identified so as to find out clues. China will also support the WHO investigation into the “origins of the virus”.

In the report, it also said that Zhang also discussed the theory that “the virus may have entered China via imports of frozen food”.

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https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3115597/wuhan-doctor-hailed-first-reporting-coronavirus-defends-chinas