Novel coronavirus is not 'manipulated or constructed' in labs: WHO spokeswoman
GENEVA - All available evidence suggests that the new coronavirus has an animal origin, and is not a virus manipulated or constructed in a lab or somewhere else, World Health Organization spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said here on Tuesday.
"It (the novel coronavirus) most probably has its ecological reservoir in bats, but how the virus came from bat to human is still to be seen, to be discovered," the spokeswoman told journalists during a virtual press briefing.
"There is certainly an intermediary host, another animal, that transmitted the disease from bats to humans," she added.
She underlined that the WHO is combating two pandemics. "We have the pandemic with the virus, but we are also combating 'infodemic'. And when you have a new virus, like this one, it is to be expected that a lot of spurious theories about the origin of the virus be relayed."
- Steps taken to ensure food security
- Ten photos from across China: Sept 13 - 19
- Typhoon Pulasan makes 2nd landfall in China
- Woman, 58, killed in Hunan dormitory complex
- Hefei e-commerce firm under probe for reportedly misleading consumers
- Man pleads guilty to child trafficking in Yunnan, following wife's death sentence