WHO says all the available evidence suggests that SARS-CoV-2 originated in animals in China late last year and was not manipulated or produced in a laboratory.

US President Donald Trump said last week that his government was trying to determine whether the virus emanated from a lab in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus pandemic emerged in December.

“All available evidence suggests the virus has an animal origin and is not manipulated or constructed in a lab or somewhere else,” WHO spokesperson Fadela Chaib told a Geneva news briefing.

“It is probable, likely, that the virus is of animal origin.”