KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 9

A team of reputed Chinese and international scientists scouting for the origin of the pandemic-causing COVID-19 pathogen denied claims of the virus to have spread from a Chinese laboratory, on Tuesday.

According to the team of WHO professionals that had entered the Chinese city of Wuhan almost a month ago, the respiratory infection firstly appeared in humans after being transmitted from an animal.

The Wuhan visit did not drastically change the existing understanding of the early days of the pandemic, Peter Ben Embarek, the leader of the WHO inspection team was quoted as saying in the Associated Press.

Wuhan Institute of Virology had assembled many virus samples that led to accusations of what may have been the source of the spread, whether inadvertently or willingly.

The team of experts found the probability of such a leak so faint that it dismissed the aforementioned allegations, which China had strongly refuted.