On Tuesday, the United States led an outraged uproar over a WHO-backed study into the source of the coronavirus in China, with allegations that Beijing failed to provide investigators with sufficient access.

The US issued a joint statement with 13 of its allies, including the UK, Japan, and Australia, claiming that the investigation lacked the requisite data and samples.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the WHO, claimed that getting raw data was difficult for the team he sent to Wuhan.

Although neither Tedros nor the US-led statement explicitly mentioned China, Beijing's foreign ministry reacted to the perceived criticism by saying that Beijing had demonstrated "its openness, accountability, and responsible attitude." Politicizing this problem would only hamper global collaboration in the analysis of origins, jeopardize anti-pandemic cooperation, and result in more deaths.”

The WHO-backed experts dismissed Trump's hypothesis that the virus may have leaked from a lab in Wuhan in their study. “All hypotheses are available, and require full and further studies,” Tedros said.

Since the outbreak in Wuhan in late 2019, the pandemic has killed nearly 2.8 million people worldwide, with new outbreaks now affecting many countries.

Italy announced on Tuesday that people traveling from other EU countries would be subjected to a five-day quarantine, while Germany will increase border checks to ensure that people arriving have negative Covid-19 samples.

The AstraZeneca vaccine has been considered safe by the WHO and the European Union's health watchdog, but its use has been limited in some countries due to concerns about blood clotting. Partial regional shutdowns in France struggled to keep the number of people in intensive care below the country's second-wave high, putting hospitals under strain.

On Tuesday, world leaders called for a new international treaty to help tackle potential outbreaks and to prepare nations. We must all work together to strengthen our ability to anticipate, avoid, track, evaluate, and effectively respond to pandemics. The plea was signed by more than 20 nations, including Germany, France, South Korea, and South Africa.

Tedros emphasized that the world cannot afford to wait until the current pandemic is over before beginning to prepare for the next one.

According to an expert study on Covid-19's origins, the virus most likely originated in bats and then spread to humans. Experts said it was "highly doubtful" that the virus was produced in a lab. They weren't convinced by Beijing's hypothesis that the virus didn't originate in China but got transported through frozen food.

The pandemic has also halted years of progress toward gender equality, reports by the World Economic Forum study. Covid-19 has had a significant effect on women who have lost employment at a higher rate than men and have had to bear a greater share of the childcare burden since schools were closed.