All available evidence suggests the coronavirus originated in bats and was not a “laboratory construct,” World Health Organization spokesperson Fadela Chaib said at a briefing in Geneva Tuesday.

US intelligence and national security officials say the United States government is looking into the possibility that the novel coronavirus spread from a Chinese laboratory rather than a market.

“At this stage, it is not possible to determine precisely the source of the virus which caused the Covid-19 pandemic,” Chaib said at a briefing. “However, all available evidence suggests that the virus has a natural animal origin and is not a manipulated or constructed virus. The virus most probably has its ecological reservoir in bats.”

“Many researchers have been able to look at its genomic features — and they have found that the evidence does not support the idea that the underlying virus is a laboratory construct.”

Chaib says people should focus on facts – not “spurious theories” about the origins of the virus.