Who owns the virus? Pandemic sparks debate on data sharing

An employee of Viet A corp works with Covid-19 testing kits inside a lab of their factory in Binh Duong province, during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease in Vietnam in this handout picture taken on March 2, 2020. [Reuters]

The coronavirus pandemic has rekindled a long-standing debate on whether viruses are a nation's property, and if countries are obliged to share biological samples and scientific data that are key to developing life-saving treatments and vaccines.

More than 6.5 million people are reported to have been infected globally, according to a Reuters tally.