ANIMAL ORIGIN OR LAB MANIPULATION? WHO HAS ITS SAY ON CORONAVIRUS ORIGINATION

The World Health Origination (WHO) on Tuesday said that all available evidence suggests that the deadly coronavirus originated in an animal in China late last year and it was not man-made in a laboratory as widely doubted.

US President Donald Trump had said in a press briefing that his administration was trying to determine whether the virus “escaped from a lab” in China.

“All available evidence suggests the virus has an animal origin and is not manipulated or constructed virus in a lab or somewhere else. It is probable, likely that the virus is of animal origin,” WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib was quoted as saying by TOI.

It was not clear how the virus had jumped the species barrier to humans but there had “certainly” been an intermediate animal host, she added