A World Health Organization expert said Tuesday that the coronavirus probably didn't leak from a Chinese lab, and most likely spread to humans from some other species, The Associated Press reports. WHO food safety and animal diseases expert Peter Ben Embarek made the statement in a summary of a WHO team's investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.
A WHO team visited the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the first COVID-19 cases were reported in December 2019, after months of resistance from the Chinese government. China has denied the virus could have leaked from a lab, and suggested, without evidence, that it might have originated elsewhere and reached Wuhan, possibly in imported frozen food packaging. China still won't agree to a fully independent investigation.