WUHAN, China – The virus that causes Covid-19 probably entered the human population via an intermediate animal and is highly unlikely to have leaked from a laboratory, the leader of an investigative team at the World Health Organization told a news conference at the Chinese city of Wuhan.
In exposing the possibilities of the origin of the pandemic, the WHO team said on Tuesday that it is also possible that it was transmitted to humans through frozen food, a theory strongly promoted by Chinese state media. But he said the most likely possibility is that the virus passed from an animal to humans, either directly or through an intermediary.
“Have we radically changed the image we had before? I don’t think so, ”said Peter Ben Embarek, a Danish food security expert who spoke on behalf of the WHO delegation. “Do we improve our understanding? Do we add details to this photo? Absolutely.”
The preliminary assessment came at a news conference that followed a two-week mission to Wuhan, the original center of the pandemic, which included Chinese and WHO experts.
—Qianwei Zhang contributed to this article.