Belarus "seriously concerned" about politicizing COVID-19 origins tracing: media

MINSK, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Belarus is seriously concerned about the politicization of the COVID-19 pandemic and pressures on the World Health Organization (WHO) and individual countries, about the origins tracing matter, the Belarusian state news agency Belta recently reported.

"Belarus closely follows discussions about the matter within the framework of the WHO and takes an active part in the development of the decisions," Belarus' foreign ministry told the agency in a Friday statement.

"We believe that competent scientists instead of politicians or diplomats should give the answer to this question," the ministry said, while being asked to comment on conspiracy theories regarding virus origins.

The WHO released in March an origin-tracing study report by the China-WHO joint mission, presenting conclusions on the virus's origin, said the Belta report.

Despite that, representatives of some countries keep spreading other statements in international organizations and on mass media "to disprove (the) conclusions of the WHO mission, replace them with their own speculations, and enforce their point of view on the international community," the ministry was quoted by the agency as saying.

Such attempts can damage international cooperation for researching the virus and can hinder the efforts to contain its spread, said the ministry, noting that "China has been interacting in an open and transparent manner with the WHO since the first days" of the outbreak.