WHO team in Wuhan says coronavirus source ‘remains unidentified’
Al JazeeraExperts also say there was no substantial spread of SARS-COV-2 in Wuhan before the late 2019 outbreak. “Our initial findings suggest that the introduction through an intermediary host species is the most likely pathway and one that will require more studies and more specific, targeted research,” Embarek said. “However, the findings suggest that the laboratory incidents hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus to the human population,” Embarek said. No evidence Liang Wannian, an expert with China’s National Health Commission, told reporters in Wuhan the joint Chinese and WHO team of 34 experts believe the virus originated in an animal, “but the reservoir host remains to be identified”. Wuhan is the city where the virus was first identified, and Liang said there was no evidence to suggest it spread in the city before the first official cases were recorded in December 2019.