Come clean on Covid-19 origin: WHO urges countries amid ‘lab leak’ claim

The WHO on Friday urged all countries to reveal what they know about the origins of Covid-19. The World Health Organization's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said,''If any country has information about the origins of the pandemic, it's essential for that information to be shared with WHO and the international scientific community.''

''Not so as to apportion blame but to advance our understanding of how this pandemic started so we can prevent, prepare for and respond to future epidemics and pandemics,'' he told a press conference.

This comes after US claims of a Chinese lab leak and furious denials from Beijing.

FBI Director Christopher Wray had told Fox News television on Tuesday that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation had now assessed the source of Covid-19 pandemic was "most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan".

However, China had rejected the US report, saying the origins-tracing of the pandemic "is about science and should not be politicised."

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the international experts have considered the theory that the pandemic might have leaked from a Chinese laboratory as "extremely unlikely".

She said it is a science-based, authoritative conclusion reached by the experts of the WHO-China joint mission after field trips to the lab in Wuhan and in-depth communication with researchers. Mao's remarks came in response to the US Department of Energy's (USDE) latest assessment that the coronavirus mostly likely leaked from a bio laboratory in Wuhan.

"It was accurately recorded in the mission's report and has received extensive recognition from the international community," she said. "The origins-tracing of SARS-CoV-2 is about science and should not be politicised. China has always supported and participated in global science-based origins-tracing," Mao said.

Meanwhile, there have been several studies and investigations conducted to try to identify the exact origins of the virus. The first cases of COVID-19 were reported in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and the initial outbreak was linked to a seafood market in the city.