BATS STILL LIKELY SOURCE OF VIRUS, EXPERTS SAY

The World Health Organization-led team probing the origins of COVID-19 said bats remain a likely source and that transmission via frozen food is a possibility, but it ruled out a lab leak.

Peter ben embarek, pictured, who led the team of experts in its month-long visit to the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak first emerged at a seafood market in late 2019, said the team’s work had uncovered new information but had not dramatically changed their picture of the outbreak.

“The possible path from whatever original animal species all the way through to the Huanan market could have taken a very long and convoluted path involving also movements across borders,” embarek said.

embarek said the investigation points to a natural reservoir in bats, but it is unlikely that they were in Wuhan. The possibility the virus leaked from a lab — which has been the subject of conspiracy theories — was extremely unlikely and did not require further study, embarek said.