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The report is also said to indicate that some of Five Eyes’ intelligence agencies believe the virus may have been leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Claims that the virus originated from a laboratory in Wuhan have been controversial. United States President Donald Trump said last week that he had evidence that gave him a “high degree of confidence” that the virus came from a laboratory, although he did not say what the evidence was. His claim came despite comments from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the main US spy agency. In the US, he believed that the virus “was neither artificial nor genetically modified.”
The World Health Organization has also said that “there is no evidence that the new coronavirus was created in a laboratory.”
An overwhelming number of scientists have also said that the virus comes from a wet market and was not man-made.
According to the Daily telegraph, the Australian government has concluded that although the virus likely emerged from a wet market in Wuhan, there was a 5 percent chance that it would accidentally leak from a laboratory.
Ardern said that despite the accusations against China, she is confident that a thorough investigation of the COVID-19 outbreak would be underway sometime in the future.
“However, what I’ve always said, when it comes to COVID-19, everyone will want to go back and see what collectively we could have done differently, could have done better,” he told The AM Show.
“Of course, we have to learn from this so that this does not happen again. So I hope we will be part of that and also take a look at ourselves and the responses we have had in the country as well.”
When asked if he thought China had been open enough to share information about the outbreak and if he was initially responsible for the spread of the virus, Ardern had no comment.
“It is not for me to make those judgments, I certainly am not in a position to do so,” he said.
“But I think we will collectively look at the broadcast in progress, the steps we all take and only our response as the world.”
Appearing on The AM Show last month, the Chinese ambassador to New Zealand, Wu Xi, faced accusations that her government had not been transparent about how she dealt with the virus.
She said China had acted “quickly” to learn as much as possible about the coronavirus and make decisions based on scientific advice.
“COVID-19 is a new virus, the world knows shortly before its outbreak, and it is fair to say that China was taken by surprise,” he said.
She said the virus could have happened “anywhere in the world” and questioned why her country was being “targeted”.
“We still don’t know where the origin of the virus is and we must wait for the scientists to come to a conclusion,” he said.
