Pretoria - The Chinese ambassador to South Africa, Lin Songtian, pushed back against suggestions his country should carry sole responsibility for Covid-19, saying while the globally-spreading disease was first reported in its city, Wuhan, there was no evidence it had originated there.
Lin spoke to journalists a day after Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced that a 38-year-old man from KwaZulu-Natal had become South Africa’s first confirmed case of Covid-19 after travelling to Italy, one of the countries hardest hit by the disease outside China.
Lin said scientists around the world were still battling to determine the source of the virus.
“So far, studies by scientists from countries like the US, Europe and Japan say that the source of the virus is still unclear, uncertain,” Lin told a news conference in Pretoria on Friday.
“But we have noticed that some people with a hidden agenda accuse China of being the origin of the virus, or they smear China by saying the virus was made in China.”
As countries around the world try to contain the spread of the virus, fake claims have floated around social media and some mainstream media about its origins.
Lin said no country could distance itself from the scourge.
“What we need to do is share the responsibility. This is a global battle between man and nature,” he said.
A situational update from the World Health Organisation on Thursday said the death toll stood at 3 015 in China and 267 elsewhere.
Lin said that while plans by the government to repatriate its citizens from Wuhan were understandable, China was making every effort to keep the disease from spreading.