London: Intelligence agencies in Britain believe that it is “feasible” that the COVID-19 pandemic started with a coronavirus leak from a Chinese laboratory, according to a media report on Sunday. This prompted UK’s Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi to seek full investigation of the origins of the deadly virus to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The COVID-19 origins are being widely debated, with several scientists and politicians maintaining that the lab leak possibility of the deadly virus exists.
Western intelligence, including Britain, initially considered a “remote” chance of it being leaked from the laboratory, where research is carried out into bat-derived coronaviruses, including one closely associated with COVID-19. But there has since been a reassessment, and a lab escape is thought “feasible”, according to a report in The Sunday Times.
Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China is near the outbreak’s known epicentre of Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in late 2019 and became a pandemic.
Over 168 million cases have been confirmed worldwide and at least 3.5 million deaths recorded.
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