US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have both claimed that there is evidence the pathogen came from the lab in Wuhan -- the city where the disease was first detected late last year.
But the World Health Organization said Washington had offered no evidence to support the "speculative" claims, and scientists believe the coronavirus jumped from animals to humans, possibly at a Wuhan market selling wild animals.
The top US epidemiologist Anthony Fauci has echoed the WHO's statement, telling National Geographic that all evidence so far "strongly indicates" a natural origin.
China's foreign ministry responded Wednesday that Pompeo had no evidence and that questions over the origin of the virus should be left to scientists, "not politicians who lie for their own domestic political ends".
Here are some key questions about the Wuhan Institute of Virology:
What do its researchers do?
Work by the lab's scientists helped to shed light on the COVID-19 pathogen in the early days of the outbreak in Wuhan.
In February, they published work concluding that the new virus shared a 79.6 percent sequence identity to the SARS coronavirus, and that it was 96 percent identical at the whole-genome level to a coronavirus found in bats.
The lab's researchers had already conducted extensive investigations on the links between bats and disease outbreaks in China, and had highlighted the need to prepare for viruses potentially spreading out of their natural reservoirs into human communities.
Scientists think COVID-19 originated in bats and could have been transmitted to people via another mammal like a pangolin, but there is no definitive answer so far.
What does it handle?
The Wuhan institute houses the largest virus bank in Asia which preserves more than 1,500 strains.
The complex contains Asia's first maximum-security lab equipped to handle Class 4 pathogens (P4) such as Ebola.
The 300-million-yuan ($42 million) P4 lab opened in 2018. A P3 lab has been in operation since 2012.
While the US intelligence community said it had concluded the coronavirus was not human-made, it added that it would continue to investigate if the outbreak started from contact with infected animals or from "an accident" at the Wuhan lab.
Could there be a leak?
US diplomatic cables seen by The Washington Post earlier said that officials were concerned about inadequate safety standards related to researchers' handling of SARS-like bat coronaviruses in the high-security lab.
The institute has said it received samples of the then-unknown virus on December 30, determined the viral genome sequence on January 2 and submitted information on the pathogen to the WHO on January 11.
Shi Zhengli, one of China's leading experts on bat coronaviruses and deputy director of the Wuhan P4 lab, said she would "bet her life that (the new coronavirus) had nothing to do with the lab", according to Chinese state media.
And in an interview with Scientific American, Shi said the SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence did not match any of the bat coronaviruses her laboratory had previously collected and studied.
While Pompeo insisted on Wednesday that there is "significant evidence" that the virus came from the lab, he acknowledged that there was no certainty.
What do scientists know about the virus?
Researchers have noted that while there is no proof for the lab accident theory, there is also no clear evidence that the virus came from the Wuhan market.
A study by a group of Chinese scientists published in The Lancet in January found that the first COVID-19 patient had no connection to the market, and neither did 13 of the first 41 confirmed cases.
Professor Leo Poon of The University of Hong Kong said the scientific community's consensus was that the virus is not human-made.
"We need to look at the origin of this virus. It is important because from a public health point of view we want to know how it happened and (if we can) learn from this," he said.
David Heymann, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, added: "We have a hypothesis that it came from a live animal market, and I haven't seen anybody provide evidence that shows to the contrary."
The WHO said last week it hoped China would invite it to take part in its investigations into the animal origins of the virus.
But China's ambassador to the UN in Geneva said Wednesday that Beijing will not invite international experts in to investigate the source of COVID-19 until after the pandemic is beaten, adding that the "right atmosphere" is needed.
AFP RELAXNEWS
Thu May 07 2020
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The Chinese laboratory accused by top American officials of being the source of the coronavirus pandemic conducts research on the world's most dangerous diseases.
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Jokowi ke Abu Dhabi untuk perbincangan dengan Presiden UAE mengenai kerjasama
Presiden Jokowi dijadual bertemu rakan sejawatannya dari UAE pada 17 Julai.
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Tiga jurusolek lelaki berperwatakan wanita didakwa rompak rakan
Kesemua mereka dakwa mengikut Seksyen 395 Kanun Keseksaan yang membawa hukuman penjara maksimum 20 tahun dan boleh dikenakan denda dan sebat, jika sabit kesalahan.
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Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Ibrahim berkenan berangkat ke pra-Mesyuarat Majlis Raja-Raja (MRR) ke-266 di Istana Negarahari ini.
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Status ADUN Rembia: DUN Melaka tunggu surat rasmi
Speaker DUN Melaka, Datuk Ibrahim Durum berkata, setakat ini pihaknya belum dimaklumkan secara rasmi dan perbincangan berhubung perkara itu akan diadakan.
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Warga emas bersalah bunuh abang, kakak ipar
Mahkamah Tinggi di sini hari ini mensabitkan kesalahan seorang warga emas atas dua pertuduhan pindaan membunuh abang dan kakak iparnya dua tahun lalu.
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PAC beri tempoh tiga bulan kepada HRD Corp kemuka laporan tindakan susulan
Mas Ermieyati Samsudin berkata tempoh itu diberikan susulan laporan audit berkaitan, baru dibentangkan pada minggu lepas.
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Penambahbaikan aspek perundangan akan diteliti kerajaan, termasuk mengadakan perbincangan dengan beberapa kementerian berkaitan dalam masa terdekat.
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Kementerian Digital sedia bantu PKS dalam pelaksanaan e-invois - Gobind
Beliau menegaskan bahawa pelaksanaan e-Invois itu akan memberi manfaat, termasuk meningkatkan pendapatan PKS.
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Kim Pan-gon akan ke Ulsan Hyundai?
Bekas pengendali skuad negara itu dilaporkan sedang menjadi calon utama untuk mengisi jawatan pengurus kelab gergasi Korea Selatan, Ulsan Hyundai.
![Lebih 2,300 hektar kawasan lapang di ibu negara diperuntukkan kawasan hijau Lebih 2,300 hektar kawasan lapang di ibu negara diperuntukkan kawasan hijau](https://resizer-awani.eco.astro.com.my/tr:w-177,h-100,q-100,f-auto/https://img.astroawani.com/2016-12/41482504881_TamanTasikTitiwang.jpg)
Lebih 2,300 hektar kawasan lapang di ibu negara diperuntukkan kawasan hijau
Daripada keluasan itu, sebanyak 977.55 hektar tanah telah diwartakan, manakala 1,416.24 hektar tanah lapang yang berpotensi akan dan sedang dalam proses diwartakan.
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COVID-19: Tiga kes kematian dicatat, ini lima tumpuan kenyataan media KKM
Terdapat 108 kes positif COVID-19 yang sedang dirawat di Unit Rawatan Rapi (ICU), di mana 47 kes memerlukan bantuan pernafasan.
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Sultan Perak, Sultan Selangor, Sultan Johor antara yang hadir ke Istana Negara
Pertemuan itu dijangka bagi membincangkan beberapa cadangan yang dipersembahkan oleh kerajaan terutamanya mengenai penularan COVID-19.
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Pusat Jagaan Darul Hanan ambil langkah pengasingan penghuni, pekerja
Difahamkan seorang wanita warga emas yang baru masuk ke situ minggu lepas disahkan COVID-19 kelmarin.
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Pegawai wadar itu bertugas di blok baharu yang menjaga sekumpulan banduan yang dijangkiti COVID-19 sebelum ini.
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SMK Lubuk China dan SK Telok Berembang di Melaka diarah tutup
Dua buah sekolah di Masjid Tanah, Melaka diarah tutup selepas seorang pelajar dari kedua-dua sekolah berkenaan disahkan positif COVID-19.
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Cawangan BSN ditutup bermula hari ini bagi melaksanakan kerja-kerja pembersihan menyeluruh.
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Jepun tarik balik larangan perjalanan ke Malaysia, 11 negara lain
Sebelas negara lain termasuk China, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapura dan Korea Selatan.
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Katanya, selepas ini hukuman kompaun akan dikenakan tanpa mengira pangkat dan darjat terhadap mereka yang melanggar prosedur operasi standard (SOP) berkaitan COVID-19.
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COVID-19: 691 kes baharu dilaporkan, majoriti di Penjara Alor Setar
Jumlah kes baharu positif COVID-19 yang dilaporkan hari ini ialah sebanyak 691.