Did Covid originated from Wuhan lab? Staff sought hospital care before pandemic outbreak

New Delhi, May 24: Three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sought hospital care in November 2019, months before Beijing reported first case of COVID-19, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, further fuelling the debate over the origins of the pandemic.

The reports provides fresh details on the number of researchers affected, the timing of their illnesses, and their hospital visits. It may also add weight to calls for a broader probe of whether the COVID-19 virus could have escaped from the laboratory.

The report comes at a time when a meeting of the World Health Organization's decision-making body, which is expected to discuss the next phase of an investigation into the origins of Covid-19.

The Journal said current and former officials familiar with the intelligence about the lab researchers expressed a range of views about the strength of the report's supporting evidence, with one unnamed person saying it needed "further investigation and additional corroboration".

The novel coronavirus emerged at central China's Wuhan city in December 2019 and became a pandemic.

The origins of the COVID-19 pandemic remain a widely debated topic, with some scientists and politicians maintaining that the possibility of a lab leak of the deadly virus exists. The Wuhan Institute of Virology is near the outbreak''s known epicentre of Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan.

Former US president Donald Trump was among those who supported the theory that the virus might have escaped from a bio lab in China.

Expressing concern, scientsts have called for more investigation to determine the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the theory of an accidental release from a lab in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

A team of WHO experts, which probed the origin of the coronavirus, concluded in March that the allegation that COVID-19 could have emanated from a bio lab "remained open".