Study By US Govt Lab Found It Plausible That COVID-19 Virus Leaked From Wuhan Lab: Report

In a major development, a report by the United States (US) government's California-based Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in May last year had concluded that the hypothesis claiming COVID-19 virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan is plausible and deserves further investigation, reports Wall Street Journal.

The said report was the outcome of a study conducted by the intelligence arm of California based US laboratory, called the "Z Division". The study was drawn on by the US' Department of State when it conducted an inquiry into the origins of the pandemic during the final months of the Trump administration.

The Department of State had received the report in late October last year and had then asked for more information.

With a considerable expertise on biological issues, the California-based laboratory's assessment is said to have drawn on genomic analysis of the COVID-19 virus. Its assessment is said to be one of the first of the US government's efforts towards exploring the hypothesis that the virus had actually leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.