Professor Zhang Yongzhen had flouted a government ban by disclosing the genome of the Covid virus soon after it emerged in Wuhan in 2020.

The first scientist to publish a sequence of the COVID-19 virus in China was staging a sit-in protest after authorities locked him out of his lab. Virologist Zhang Yongzhen wrote in an online post Monday that he and his team had been suddenly notified they were being evicted from their lab,

Chinese scientist who published COVID-19 virus sequence is allowed back in his lab after days of sit-in protest

Zhang Yongzhen, the pioneering scientist credited with publishing the initial sequence of the COVID-19 virus in China, has been granted permission to re-enter his laboratory following a high-profile sit-in protest staged outside the facility.

Zhang Yongzhen was staging a sit-in after a long-running dispute with the health authorities since he shared the sequence without going through state channels

A scientist in China has said he was let back into his lab after spending days locked outside sitting in protest. Zhang Yongzhen was the first scientist to publish a sequence of the virus that causes COVID-19 in China in 2020 which helped lead to the development of tests and vaccines.