COVID-19 origins tracing should not be politicized: Zimbabwean newspaper

HARARE, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- As the COVID-19 virus continues to spread around the world and claim millions of lives, a Zimbabwean state-run media outlet said the COVID-19 origins tracing shouldn't be politicized.

Zimbabwe's Herald newspaper, in an article published Tuesday, noted that the alleged China lab leak theory promulgate by some U.S. media organizations have already been widely dismissed by experts.

The article quoted China's Deputy Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu as saying, "China will continue to support efforts to trace the origins of COVID-19. We're actually implementing and will continue to practice relevant suggestions based on the China-WHO joint research report."

Last month, 24 world-renowned medical experts affirmed in The Lancet that suggestions of a lab-leak source of the pandemic remain without scientifically validated evidence.

So far, 70 countries have called for recognizing the findings of the WHO-China joint mission report in their letters to the WHO.