Concerns have been expressed by the United States and 13 other countries on a joint study by the World Health Organization and China on the origins of Covid-19.

 Concerns have been expressed by the United States and 13 other countries on a joint study by the World Health Organization and China on the origins of Covid-19.

The United States joined a group of 13 nations, including Japan, in a statement criticising the World Health Organization's (WHO) long-awaited study on Covid-19's roots.

The WHO team was "significantly delayed and lacked access to full, initial data and samples," according to the community of 14 countries.

In a statement, the US, Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, and Israel said they "absolutely" backed the WHO's attempts to stop the pandemic, including figuring out how it "started and spread."

"It is critical that we express our common concerns that the international expert report on the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been substantially delayed and lacks access to full, original data and samples," they said.

The declaration was also signed by Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom.

According to the joint statement, "in the event of a significant epidemic of an unknown pathogen with pandemic potential, a swift, unbiased, expert-led, and unhindered assessment of the source is crucial to help equip our population, our public health agencies, our economies, and our governments to respond effectively to such an outbreak and deter possible pandemics."

"Going forward, there must now be a renewed commitment by WHO and all Member States to access, transparency, and timeliness," the group added.

On Tuesday, the WHO published a long-awaited joint report on Covid-19's roots. The most likely route for the pandemic to start was transmission from bats to another species, and then to humans, according to the study.

The study, which took place between January 14 and February 10 in Wuhan, China, by a WHO team of foreign experts, is the first step in what is supposed to be a years-long inquiry into the virus's origins.

Meanwhile, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has stated that WHO investigators who travelled to China to investigate the source of the coronavirus outbreak were denied access to data.

"During my interactions with the squad, they shared their problems with obtaining raw data," Tedros said. "I foresee more timely and detailed data sharing in future collective research."

Tedros requested more studies in order to arrive at "more solid findings." "I don't think this appraisal was thorough enough," he said at a press conference on Tuesday.

"While the team has concluded that a laboratory leak is the least possible hypothesis," Tedros said, "further analysis is needed, perhaps with additional missions involving specialist specialists, which I am prepared to deploy."

China has been extensively chastised around the world for its supposed role in the global dissemination of the novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 127 million people. According to Johns Hopkins University, the epidemic has claimed the lives of more than 2.79 million people.