The World Health Organization (WHO) of Switzerland restate on Friday that the new coronavirus was of natural origin after US President Donald Trump claimed he had seen evidence it originated in a Chinese lab.

According to some scientists, they believe the killer virus jumped from animals to humans, emerging in China late last year, possibly from a market in Wuhan selling exotic animals for meat.

US President Donald Trump claimed on Thursday that he had seen proof that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was actually the source of the outbreak, although he refused to give details.

During the interview with Trump in a virtual press conference of the chief of WHO emergencies Michael Ryan, he insists that the UN health agency had “listened again and again to numerous scientists who have looked at the sequences” of the virus.

“We are assured that this virus is natural in origin,” he said.

On Friday, WHO wanted to be invited to take part in Chinese investigations into the animal origins of the pandemic, which already killed more than 230,000 people worldwide in just a matter of months.

Michael Ryan said, “What is important is that we establish what that natural host for this virus is,” stressing the need to understand “how the animal-human species barrier was breached.”

“And the purpose of understanding that is that we can put in place the necessary prevention and public health measures to prevent that happening again anywhere,” he added.

WHO ‘didn’t waste time’

According to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, they sounded the highest level of alert by declaring that the COVID-19 outbreak constituted a “public health emergency of international concern” on January 30, when there were no deaths and only 82 cases registered outside China.

“We didn’t waste any time,” he said during the briefing on Friday. “The world had enough time to intervene.”

His comments came after WHO’s emergency committee met for the first time since making its declaration three months ago.

“Of course, the pandemic remains a public health emergency of international concern,” Tedros said after he receives the recommendations from the committee.

While maintaining the global alert level, the experts made a range of general recommendations on how the WHO and countries should adjust their response to the pandemic.

It called among other things for broad cooperation to “identify the zoonotic source of the virus and the route of introduction to the human population.”

They also ask WHO to “update recommendations on appropriate travel measures” linked to the outbreak and to consider “the balance between benefits and unintended consequences,” such as the difficulties of transporting humanitarian aid when so many flights are grounded.

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