More than half a million Internet users in China have signed an open letter to the World Health Organization (WHO) demanding an investigation into the situation in the American biological laboratory at Fort Detrick prevent future epidemics, RIA Novosti reported, citing the Global Times.

Earlier, as the Associated Press reported, the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, did not rule out the possibility of the artificial origin of the coronavirus.

He noted that the organization intends to audit laboratories and research facilities in the area of ​​the first human cases of COVID-19 in December 2019.

China allowed virologists from Western countries and US media representatives to visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

A group of Chinese users prepared a letter and asked the newspaper to publish it on social networks, which was done on Saturday, July 17. During the day, the letter gained more than 500 thousand signatures, the newspaper notes.