Beijing has come under increasing pressure over transparency in its handling of the pandemic, with the US probing whether the virus actually originated in a virology institute with a high-security biosafety laboratory. Chinese scientists have said the virus likely jumped from an animal to humans in a market that sold wildlife. But the existence of the facility has fuelled conspiracy theories that the germ spread from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, specifically its P4 laboratory which is equipped to handle dangerous viruses. In an interview with state media published Saturday Yuan Zhiming, director of the laboratory, said that "there's no way this virus came from us". When asked if the research suggested the virus could have come from the institute, Yuan said: "I know it's impossible."

Source: Daily Nation April 19, 2020 03:22 UTC