World Health Organization

The international scientists dispatched to China by WHO to look for the origins of the coronavirus say the search has “stalled” and warn the window for getting to the bottom of the mystery is closing fast.

Cases of the variant have popped up in several states. But neither the WHO nor the CDC considers it a variant of concern, and the fast-spreading delta variant continues to dominate U.S. cases.

Chinese officials say they cannot support a second phase of a study into the origins of the pandemic, including new investigation into the theory that the virus might have leaked from a Chinese lab.

The statement by World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus undermines a WHO report that concluded that a laboratory leak was “extremely unlikely.”

More than 2.6 million new cases were reported between June 28 and July 4, a slight increase on the previous week, while the tally of deaths registered over the week declined 7% to 54,000.

WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the strain is continuing to evolve and mutate, and it is becoming the predominant COVID-19 virus in many countries.

Numerous experts, including some with strong ties to WHO, say that political tensions between the U.S. and China make any U.N.-led investigation impossible.

In the wake of heated debate over the unproven lab leak theory, the world is calling on China to cooperate with investigations. But efforts to delve into this matter seem to be stalling.

Pathogens can blossom from an outbreak into a pandemic because they "exploit our interconnectedness and expose our inequities and divisions," the World Health Organization's leader says.

The global study, which the WHO calls the first of its kind, found that more than 745,000 people died in 2016 from overwork that resulted in stroke and heart disease.