Washington DC, March 01: In a major development, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States, Christopher Wray said on Wednesday (March 01) that the coronavirus that triggered the worst pandemic of the century, originated from China's Wuhan lab. The FBI tweeted that the agency is of the opinion that a lab incident caused the coronavirus pandemic.

 

"FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed that the Bureau has assessed that the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from a lab incident in Wuhan, China," tweeted the FBI.

 

 

"The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan... I will just make the observation that the Chinese government has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we are doing, the work that our US government and close foreign partners are doing," he added in a statement.

 

 

 

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that a new intelligence input had prompted the country's energy department to conclude that an accidental lab leak triggered the coronavirus pandemic. The Chinese government has been maintaining that the COVID-19 virus possibly originated from a bat that was consumed by someone in Wuhan.

 

 

 

The Chinese relish exotic wild animals and the first COVID-19 came from a wet market in China's Wuhan. Wuhan is also a prominent education centre in China. Thousands of medical students from China and abroad study here. It also has a lab that studies the behaviour of viruses.

 

The lab is a state of the art facility. The World Health Organization (WHO) had launched a probe into the origins of the lab. The US has been claiming that the Chinese government is stonewalling the investigation.

 

The Energy Department's insights come from its network of national laboratories, some of which conduct biological research, rather than more traditional forms of intelligence like spy networks or communications intercepts.

 

The emergence of the pandemic heightened tensions between the US and China, which US officials alleged was withholding information about the outbreak. It also led to a spirited and at times partisan debate in the US about its origin.China, which has placed limits on investigations by the World Health Organisation (WHO), has disputed that the virus could have leaked from one of its labs and has suggested it emerged outside China.

 

The coronavirus took the lives of millions of people across the world and upended the global supply-chains and economic order. Due to the coronavirus-induced financial woes, an economic ripple-effect characterised by racing inflation is being observed across the world, including India.

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