‘Premature’ to rule out Covid lab leak, says WHO chief

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there had been a ‘premature push’ to rule out the theory that the virus might have escaped from a Chinese government laboratory (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP)

The head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has acknowledged it was premature to rule out a potential link between the Covid-19 pandemic and a laboratory leak and said he was asking China to be more transparent as scientists search for the origins of the coronavirus.

In a rare departure from his usual deference to powerful member countries, WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said getting access to raw data had been a challenge for the international team that travelled to China earlier this year to investigate the source of Covid-19.