WHO counters Trump’s allegation, says coronavirus ‘natural in origin’

The World Health Organization (WHO) has countered claims made by the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump that the novel coronavirus which has claimed scores of lives across the globe originated in a Chinese virology lab.

WHO in a statement issued on Friday said it is “assured” that the novel coronavirus, which has turned into a global pandemic, is “natural in origin” — this as the U.S. is increasingly eyeing a lab in Wuhan, China, as where the deadly outbreak may have started.

“We have listened again and again to numerous scientists who have looked at the sequence and looked at the virus and we are assured that this virus is natural in origin,” Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, said at a press conference when asked about the virus’ origins.

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“What is important is that we establish what that natural host for this virus is, and the primary purpose of doing that is to ensure we understand the virus more, we understand the animal-human interface and we understand how the animal-human species barrier was breached,” he said.

Trump who was speaking with reporters at the White House on Thursday, when he made the claim that coronavirus originated in a Chinese virology lab however declined to provide any evidence for his claim that is likely to further increase tension with China over the origin of the pandemic.

The US President said that strong evidence he had seen has given him a “high degree of confidence” that the novel virus which has seen America record the highest death toll in the world, came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
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