A Chinese scientist has claimed that the COVID-19 virus may have originated from humans.
China’s State Council Information Office held a press conference in Beijing on Saturday to discuss the latest findings in tracing the origin of the virus.
The scientists claimed that DNA data shared in Nature, an international scientific journal, showed that the strains found in samples from the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, where the first cases appeared, are more likely to have come from from people.
The researchers analyzed more than 1,300 DNA samples collected from animals and the environment in the market.
There was no coronavirus in any of the 457 animal samples examined, ruling out the possibility of animal transmission.
“These findings show that in the market cases, the virus was transmitted by other people, not by the animals sold. There was not yet enough evidence to support recent studies that had suggested raccoon dogs were the origin of the coronavirus,” said Tong Yigang from Beijing University of Chemical Technology.
The professor said there was also no evidence that the virus could have been created in a laboratory.
The first cases of the COVID-19 pandemic were reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, and later spread throughout the world. It was declared a global pandemic and claimed millions of lives.