Novel Coronavirus 'Happened Naturally': WHO Chief

Dismissing claims about the source of the novel Coronavirus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated the natural origin of the virus, Xinhua reports.

"The virus has naturally arisen," said WHO Chief at the Covid-19 media briefing on Friday.

“These’re all the publications we know, and if there's anything that will change this, it should come through the proper scientific process. WHO believes in science and evidence and that's why we say science, solutions and solidarity," he said.

Many studies on the origin of the virus have shown predominantly that the virus, or SARS-CoV-2, originated spontaneously rather than from some organization.

Dr. Tedros' statement comes shortly after a Chinese scientist in exile threatened to publish evidence supporting her accusation that the virus was not of nature, adding that it was developed in the Wuhan lab.

The Chinese virologist also alleged that the Chinese government and the WHO knew a great deal about human-to-human transmission before making it public, alleging that they had a good understanding of how badly it might affect the world if it did not exist, reports the Republic of the World.