WHO Emergency Health Program Executive Director Mike Ryan said on October 6 that WHO had selected a nominated list of experts from around the world. Mr. Ryan said Beijing will now select faces to join the international investigation team, as well as give a timeline for these experts to travel to China to learn about Covid-19’s origin.

"A list of candidates was sent to China for them to consider and take the next steps to deploy this team," said Ryan, but did not specify when the list was sent.

WHO is under pressure from member countries to initiate an investigation into how the SARS-CoV-2 virus is spread from animals to humans.

Earlier in August, two WHO experts went to China to conduct a pre-station investigation. The international team of experts is scheduled to travel to Wuhan, Hubei - where the disease broke out - to begin an investigation. In July, WHO said that the team of experts will begin to investigate only "a few weeks" after the pre-station.

During a meeting earlier this week, representatives from the US, the European Union (EU) and Australia called on WHO to bring the expert team to China and share more information on this mission.

"Transparency related to the investigation is very important and we would like more information on the specialist roster on the international investigation team and their work agenda," said an Australian representative.

However, observers said that according to regulations, WHO cannot send experts to a member country without the permission of that country and this seems to put WHO in a difficult position.

Observers say the accuracy of the investigation will depend on which experts are involved and how the investigation is conducted, especially after allegations that WHO favored China during the first few weeks of the outbreak. .

China stated that it remained in close contact with WHO during the time of the pandemic. The Beijing side said on October 6 that they are always "transparent and accountable for fulfilling their international obligations".

Earlier this year, China rejected calls from the US and Australia to initiate an investigation into the origin of Covid-19. Beijing said this was an attempt to "blame" China for the pandemic. However, China later supported a WHO resolution to initiate an international Covid-19 investigation.