China says WHO has claimed there is no evidence that the coronavirus was produced in the laboratory

BEIJING, Apr 16 (Reuters) – China’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that the World Health Organization has claimed that there is no evidence that the coronavirus that has infected more than two million people globally was produced. in a lab.

Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian made the comments in response to a question about allegations that the coronavirus originated from a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the epidemic initially emerged in late 2019.

Zhao told reporters during a daily conference in Beijing that World Health Organization authorities “have said on multiple occasions that there is no evidence that the new coronavirus was created in a laboratory.”

United States President Donald Trump said Wednesday that his government is trying to determine whether the coronavirus emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Beijing “must be sincere” in what it knows.

Zhao did not directly address Trump’s comments.

(Report by Gabriel Crossley; Written by Se Young Lee; Edited in Spanish by Ricardo Figueroa)