WHO concludes investigation of COVID-19 origin in China

After a 12-day visit to Wuhan in China to investigate the origins of the coronavirus, the team of the World Health Organisation on February 9, 2021, dismissed the theory of a ‘lab leak’ of the virus, concluding that it most probably got transmitted to humans via an intermediary species.

The team will not suggest further investigation into the theory that the COVID-19 virus accidentally leaked from the labs conducting research on the disease. The findings by the team suggest that the hypothesis of laboratory incident is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus into the human population.

They stated that there is no evidence of the circulation of Coronavirus in any animal species in China. Even though the work of identifying the origin of the virus points to a natural reservoir in bats, it is highly unlikely that they were in Wuhan, the central city of China from where the outbreak was discovered in late 2019.