WHO to probe virus cases before Wuhan

The World Health Organisation still wants to find out whether there were small COVID-19 outbreaks in China before the first known cases in Wuhan in December 2019, virologist Marion Koopmans says. The Dutch scientist was part of the WHO-led team that returned from Wuhan this week after a mission to search for the origins of the coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease. The WHO mission did not find conclusive evidence of cases before December 2019. However, a broad review in Chinese disease statistics turned up 92 patients who fell ill before the known outbreak with COVID-type symptoms, Koopmans told an…