Beijing announced Wednesday that the delay in giving the green light to a WHO mission to China to investigate the source of the coronavirus "is not just a visa issue."

But talks are continuing regarding "the specific date for the visit of the group of experts and the arrangements for them," according to what a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hua Shunying, told the media about this very sensitive mission.

A little more than a year after the first infections were discovered in the Chinese city of Wuhan, it was decided to send ten prominent scientists chosen by the World Health Organization to China to try to trace the source of the virus to find out how it transmitted to humans.

But this visit is very sensitive for the Chinese regime, which is keen to avoid any responsibility for the spread of the epidemic that has so far claimed more than 1.8 million lives around the world.

But the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said, "We learned today that Chinese officials have not yet completed the necessary permits for the team to arrive in China," expressing "great disappointment" after informing him of this.

He expressed "great disappointment with this news, as two scientists started their journey and others were unable to travel at the last minute."