A team of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) who will conduct an investigation into the origins of the corona virus arrived in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China on Thursday (14/1/2021).

State broadcaster CGTN showed the plane carrying the team arriving from Singapore to be greeted by Chinese officials in full suits.

Peter Ben Embarek as team leader for the mission, said there are 10 group the scientists will begin with a mandatory quarantine at a hotel due to Chinese immigration requirements.

"And then after two weeks, we will be able to move around and meet our Chinese counterparts in person and go to different places we want to visit," Embarek said. Quotes from AFP

He warned that these events "could be a very long journey before we get a full understanding of what happened."

Beijing argues that although Wuhan is where the first cluster of cases was detected, it is not necessarily where the virus originated.

I don't think we'll get a clear answer after this initial mission, but we will continue, "Embarek added.

"The idea is to advance a number of studies that were designed and concluded months ago so that we better understand what's going on."

Their trip came as China was hit again by a second wave of the pandemic, with more than 20 million people isolated in northern China and one province having declared a state of emergency.

The WHO's trip was also long overdue, more than a year after the pandemic began and has sparked political tensions over accusations that Beijing is trying to derail the project.

China has largely brought the pandemic under control through tight lockdowns and mass testing, hailing its economic recovery as an indication of strong leadership by Communist authorities.

But another 138 infections were reported by the National Health Commission on Thursday for the highest one-day tally since March last year.

China has now registered 87,844 positive cases, with 4,635 deaths, and 82,324 cases where patients have recovered, according to World meters data.