Wuhan, China — The World Health Organization’s team of coronavirus experts were released from quarantine to begin their field work in Wuhan, China, on Thursday. After two weeks shut in a hotel, as mandated by China’s virus-mitigation rules for all incoming travelers, they will now begin their hunt for the source of COVID-19 in the city where the world’s first known cases emerged.

CBS News Asia correspondent Ramy Inocencio and his team have been traveling to Wuhan to cover the pandemic since it began, and they’re back again this week as 13 freed experts from the WHO begin their mission in earnest.

They tweeted photos of their departure, and New York-based epidemiologist Peter Daszak showed off his clearance letter from the Chinese authorities. He told CBS News before his release from the hotel that his focus will be on China’s first cases of COVID-19, which stretch back to late 2019, based on current findings and reports.

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