Now the international team of experts will first spend 14 days in quarantine before researching how the virus may have moved from animals to humans.

Early on, it was traced to this wet market now shuttered up where wildlife was sold as food.

It suggested that it was here that it made the leap.

The delayed trip follows months of diplomatic wrangling.

China initially denied entry to the scientists.

It argues that the virus may have originated elsewhere.

For more.

Let's bring in Dale Fisher, infectious disease specialist at the National University of Singapore.

He's also head of the Wh Ose Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network.

Thank you so much for making the time to speak with us here on DW news.

We understand that you were part of the W H O China Joint mission last year.

As we've been hearing, another W H O team arrived today in Wuhan.

What are they looking for?

Well, they're obviously trying thio to find the origins of the virus, which is, uh, obviously a very complex mission.

Um We chose to not address this a year ago because we prioritized, uh, Mawr in terms of the response understanding the virus, the disease, the the interventions that could work.

So... this is now in, um or elective way.

Um, going to look at this.

– This... will take a little while to get to the bottom of. – And the mission to establish the origins,

you know, if we just look at the timeline here, you know, China earlier had kept this initiative out.

What sort of challenge it has that presented now to finding out how the the outbreak really started.

Eso that's not quite true.

It was.

It was very much a joint decision that we would back in February.

Um, prioritized the work.

And I think if you look at the report that we came out within in February, uh, I think it za literally full of essential information that's being used and has stood the test of time.

So, in fact, even back then we were looking at some of the data which China was producing in terms of swapping of animals on DTI trying to find intermediate hosts.

So... this is really building on a lot of work that's being done so far. And actually I quite dispute the fact that we're losing in the last year.

It's... I don't know, if you're going to get a lot from looking at a market even back then.

It's really about looking at the data, looking at the the p C.

R.

Results off off people off animals, looking at the environmental swabs, doing all the genotyping.

So So the mission really is Thio give a context.

If you like it, Z, it's important to go there.

But actually, I think a lot of the work will be done inside and and looking at looking at data.

Okay, Got it.

Um, tell us a little bit more About what?

What you see happening.

Um, you know, in the country right now, because we've we've had some reports of a spike in infections, um, and lockdowns in several areas of china.

Um, what more can you tell us about that and what you might be seeing also in the region more broadly?

Yeah, it's a it's a good point, but actually, China has, uh, if you plot China over the last year, there was obviously that huge effort toe to bring under control the nation wide spread, which was obviously focused in in Wuhan and who they but But in fact, every province was was affected, probably in the triple digits and that massive, nationwide wide locked down.

But since then, they've had several other clusters.

Uh, now, there are obviously a couple of theories, and everyone will be aware of the theory of importation on fresh and frozen food.

Um, uh, The other theory, of course, is could it have just been in a traveler that, uh, that, uh perhaps that a false negative tests on on clearing quarantine sort of things.

So So somehow, as we've seen in many countries, that can infiltrate the borders and and cause clusters, and China's response has always been very aggressive.

A za we know, it's, uh it does lockdowns and isolates communities.

It does mass swapping in the order of millions of people, a zone adjunct in into the contact tracing and quarantining and the serial testing of contact.

So it's China's obviously really, uh, learned a harsh lesson from what happened in Wuhan and even a couple of cases now results in a very dramatic response.

So actually, what's happening now I don't think is, uh, significantly different to what we've seen for the last year in China.

Dale Fisher, chair of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network at the Wh oh, thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks for having me back and elsewhere in the world.

Germany has recorded its highest 24 hour death toll in the pandemic so far.

The Public Health Agency for Infectious Diseases, the Robert Koch Institut, reported almost 1250 deaths in a single day.

Its president called upon employers to allow more work from home, warning that the new coronavirus variant presented a serious threat.

It is possible that the situation will get worse.

That's why it is ALS.

The more important that we consistently adhered to the current measures, we must prevent the nuke over 19 variant from spreading it.

Unnecessary travel should be avoided.

All cases of this strain that we're currently aware of in Germany are because of travel, and meanwhile, the W H O is holding an emergency meeting to discuss the new variant of the coronavirus.

There are concerns that the variants may be much more infectious than the first strain that emerged in China and could potentially render some vaccines less effective.

Global virus cases now standard over 90 million, with some two million dead.

Several countries are experiencing their worst day yet of the pandemic.

At this London hospital, doctors are treating three times three usual number of patients in the intensive care unit.

They say they are struggling to cope.

This is how many people to be seen, One person later seems to just be Someone comes straight back in, um, staff wise, we're stretched.

Um, we're working probably the hardest wherever gonna working after it.

A sharp increase in Serious Cove in 19 cases on record deaths come a month after a new variant of the coronavirus was detected in the UK Many countries have since restricted travel due to the British variant, but it's still spread to at least 50 territories, according to the World Health Organization.

Other new variants have also been reported, including in South Africa and Brazil.

The consequence off an ever changing virus.

It is inevitable that the virus is developing, and the more the more it spreads in an uncontrolled manner in many places across the world.

The more chances were giving the virus to evolve eerily empty streets again a feature of countries worldwide as governments extend or ramp up restrictions to try and limit the spread of the virus variance.

While authorities say there's no evidence the British and South African variants make the virus more severe, they share a common trait that's believed to make them much more contagious.