The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that all evidence indicates that the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) originated from bats in China in 2019.
According to the global health body, there is no basis for speculations that the virus was manipulated in a lab as presently being speculated in some quarters.
WHO spokesperson, Fadela Chaib made the clarification on Tuesday at a news briefing in Geneva, Switzerland.
Recall that President Donald Trump had stated last week that the US government was still trying to determine if a lab in Wuhan, in central China’s Hubei Province was responsible for the virus.
Chaib noted that the WHO had ascertained that the virus was not manipulated in a lab but research was still ongoing to determine how the virus jumped from animals to humans.
“All available evidence suggests the virus has an animal origin and is not manipulated or constructed virus in a lab or somewhere else. It is probable, likely that the virus is of animal origin.
“It is not clear how the virus jumped the species barrier to humans but there had ‘certainly’ been an intermediate animal host,’’ the WHO spokesperson stated.
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