China has rejected the next stage of a WHO plan to investigate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

The World Health Organization wants to audit laboratories in the area the virus was first identified.

Zeng Yixin, China’s deputy health minister, said this showed “disrespect for common sense and arrogance toward science”.

WHO experts said it was very unlikely the virus escaped from a Chinese lab, but the theory has endured.

Investigators were able to visit Wuhan – the city where the virus was first detected in December 2019 – in January 2021.

However, earlier this month WHO chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus outlined the terms of the inquiry’s next phase. This included looking at certain science research institutions.

He has now called on China to be more co-operative about the early stages of the outbreak.

Dr. Tedros urged China to “be transparent, to be open and co-operate” with investigators and provide raw patient data that had not been shared during the first probe.

US Accuses China of Hacking Covid-19 Vaccine Labs

Speaking at a press conference on July 22, Zeng Yixin said he was extremely surprised by the WHO proposal because it focused on alleged violations of China’s laboratory protocols.

He said it was “impossible” for China to accept the terms, adding that the country had submitted its own origins-tracing recommendations.

“We hope the WHO would seriously review the considerations and suggestions made by Chinese experts and truly treat the origin tracing of the Covid-19 virus as a scientific matter, and get rid of political interference,” Reuters quoted Zeng Yixin as saying.

Yuan Zhiming, director of the National Biosafety Laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, also appeared at the press conference. He said the virus was of natural origin and maintained no virus leak or staff infections had occurred at the facility since it opened in 2018.

More than 4 million people have died worldwide since the start of the pandemic and the WHO has faced growing international pressure to further investigate the origins of the virus.