Chinese leaders ‘did not know about coronavirus before outbreak began’

A worker in protective overalls outside the Wuhan Central Hospital (Ng Han Guan/AP)

US intelligence agencies remain divided on the origins of coronavirus, but believe China’s leaders did not know about the virus before the start of the global pandemic.

According to an unclassified summary of a review ordered by President Joe Biden, four members of the US intelligence community say with low confidence that the virus was initially transmitted from an animal to a human.