China Was Not Aware of Covid-19 in Advance, US Intelligence Says

US intelligence believes that the new coronavirus began spreading due to animal transmission or a laboratory incident. This was reported by РИА Новости, referencing a report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The report states that Chinese authorities were unaware of Covid-19 before the virus was isolated by the Wuhan Institute of Virology following its spread among the population, and did not develop it as a biological weapon.

The report on the origins of Covid-19 also indicates that the virus is not genetically engineered. The authors of the report assert that if the outbreak was the result of a laboratory incident, officials in the People's Republic of China likely did not know about it in the initial months.