WHO mission to China says lab leak 'extremely unlikely', says COVID-19 source unclear

World Health Organisation (WHO) team, which is currently in China to investigate origin of COVID-19 virus, has said that it is "extremely unlikely" disease spre from a virology lab in Wuhan as suggested by some in Western countries. Ben Embarek, he of WHO mission, during a press briefing on Tuesday, said hyposis suggesting spre of virus through lab leak is unlikely and furr studies will be carried regarding same. 

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" laboratory incident hyposis is extremely unlikely to explain introduction of virus into human population. refore is t in hyposes that we will suggest for future studies," Embarek said on Tuesday. 

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'Animal source still unclear'

WHO team said that it went to China with two key objectives - one was to better understand what happened at beginning of event in December 2019, when virus was first identified in Wuhan, and second, was to determine how virus emerged and wher it was circulating prior to December 2019. WHO team said in terms of understanding of what happened in Wuhan at beginning of pandemic remains same with just mir dition to details. 

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primary source of virus still remains unclear as WHO scientists dismissed spre from bats to humans, saying Wuhan is t a city close to bat population, hence spre from bats is highly unlikely. " work to identify possible animal sources is still under progress," WHO team said. However, team did confirm that virus spre from animal market in Wuhan, where it was suspected earlier by global experts. WHO team said a detailed report about mission will be published in coming weeks. 

WHO team has been in China for over a month w to investigate origin of COVID-19 virus. visit was marred by controversies even before international team reached China. WHO h to negotiate for months with Chinese authorities before ncy secured a visit for its investigating team. 

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