INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
last week that the respiratory illness spike was due to the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions and the circulation of known pathogens, namely
influenza and common bacterial infections that affect children, including mycoplasma pneumonia.The Chinese capital of Beijing, located in
the north of the country, is currently experiencing a cold snap, with temperatures expected to plummet to well below zero by Friday, state
director and chief epidemiological expert at the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told state media on Wednesday.Beijing
including influenza, SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that gives rise to Covid-19), RSV affecting infants and Mycoplasma pneumoniae, as well as on the
course of the Covid-19 pandemic, the WHO repeatedly criticised Chinese authorities for their lack of transparency and cooperation.More than
three years after cases were first detected in Wuhan, heated debate still rages around the origins of Covid-19.Scientists are divided
between two main theories of the cause: an escape from a laboratory in the city where such viruses were being studied and an intermediate
animal that infected people at a local market.Earlier this year, WHO experts said they were sure that Beijing had far more data that could
shed light on the origins of Covid, and called it a moral imperative for the information to be shared.A team of specialists led by the WHO
and accompanied by Chinese colleagues investigated China in early 2021, but there has not been a team able to return since and WHO officials
have repeatedly asked for additional data.WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has stressed that getting to the bottom of the mystery could
