All available evidence to date suggests that the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has a natural animal origin and is not a manipulated or constructed virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a daily report on Thursday.

"All available evidence for COVID-19 suggests that SARS-CoV-2 has a zoonotic source," said the world health authority, adding that "many researchers have been able to look at the genomic features of SARS-CoV-2 and have found that evidence does not support that SARS-CoV-2 is a laboratory construct."

"A constructed virus would show a mix of known elements within genomic sequences – this is not the case," said the report.

SARS-CoV-2 was identified in early January and its genetic sequence was shared publicly on January 11-12, noted the global health watchdog, stressing that the full genetic sequence of the virus from the early human cases and the sequences of many other viruses isolated from human cases from China and all over the world since then show that SARS-CoV-2 has an ecological origin in bat populations.

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