WHO Says Coronavirus Has “Natural Origin” After Trump’s Chinese Laboratory Claim

A senior World Health Organization official has insisted that the coronavirus is “naturally occurring” after Donald Trump claimed to have seen the outbreak of evidence originating from a laboratory in China.

Emergency chief Dr. Michael Ryan said WHO teams have listened “over and over” to many scientists who have examined the genetic sequences and the virus, “and we are confident that this virus is naturally occurring “

He said it was important to establish the virus’s natural host, which could help pave the way for a better understanding of the virus and ways to prevent and respond to future outbreaks.

On Thursday, Trump suggested he was confident that the Wuhan Virology Institute was the origin of the coronavirus, before again criticizing the WHO’s prompt response to the outbreak.

Most scientists believe the virus emerged in a market in the Chinese city, linked to an animal that has not yet been identified.

The WHO Emergency Committee on the Covid-19 outbreak recommended on Friday that the outbreak remain an international public health emergency, its highest level of alert.

The President of the USA USA He speculated that China could have unleashed the Covid-19 in the world due to some kind of horrible “bug”, and he even put forward the idea that the launch was intentional.

It comes as his intelligence agencies said they are still examining a notion put forth by the president and his aides that the pandemic may have been the result of an accident in a Chinese laboratory.

(PA graphics)

US intelligence agencies have debunked a conspiracy theory, saying they have concluded that the coronavirus “was neither man-made nor genetically modified.”

Speaking at the White House, Trump said: “What happened is a terrible thing.

“If they made a mistake or if it started as a mistake and then they made another, or someone did something on purpose.”

The Chinese government said any claim that the coronavirus was released from a laboratory is “unfounded and purely manufactured out of thin air.”

Trump has repeatedly blamed China for his handling of the outbreak, criticizing the country for restricting domestic travel to curb the virus, but not for international travel to prevent it from spreading abroad.

“It certainly could have been stopped,” Trump said during an event in the East Room about his administration’s efforts to help older people during the outbreak.

“They couldn’t do it from a competition point of view, or they let it spread.”

“It broke loose, let’s say, and they could have covered it.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said: “I would like to point out again that the origin of the virus is a complex scientific problem, and that it should be studied by scientists and professionals.

Visitors wearing face masks to protect themselves against the new coronavirus pose for a selfie in Beijing’s Forbidden City (AP)

He also criticized those in the United States who say China should be responsible for the global pandemic, saying they should spend their time “better managing the epidemic situation at home.”

Many countries are relaxing stringent closing conditions as the grim new numbers underscored the pain caused by the disease and increased pressure on leaders to restart their economies.

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits surpassed a staggering 30 million and the European economy fell a record 3.8% in the first quarter as hotels, restaurants, construction and manufacturing sites froze due to closings.

The layoffs amount to one in six American workers and cover more people than the entire population of Texas.

A woman wears a face mask while walking along Pier 45 in the Hudson River Park, New York (AP)

Some economists say the U.S. unemployment rate for April can be as high as 20%, a figure not seen since the Depression of the 1930s, when unemployment reached 25%.

The ancient Forbidden City of China in Beijing has reopened, with all tickets for the holiday period May 1 to 5 sold out, and a limit of 5,000 visitors per day, below the previous high of 80,000.

Beijing has also reopened its parks and museums, with controlled entrances, about three months after hundreds of millions of people were ordered to almost shut down when the coronavirus outbreak broke out in the central city of Wuhan.

China has reported 12 new cases, six of them brought from abroad, and there are no new deaths by day 16.

In the USA In the US, where large numbers of people continue to die from Covid-19, health officials have warned of the danger of a second wave of infection, and some employers and employees have expressed fear of returning to work.

The virus has killed more than 230,000 people worldwide, including more than 61,000 in the United States, according to a count by Johns Hopkins University.

Confirmed infections worldwide exceeded 3.2 million, with one million of them in the US. But the actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to limited evidence, differences in the death count, and concealment by some governments.