Wuhan lab ‘experimented on bats from cave where coronavirus may have originated’

The possibility that coronavirus escaped from a Wuhan laboratory is ‘no longer being discounted’ after evidence revealed that scientists had been carrying out experiments on infected cave bats.

A report has shown that the Wuhan Institute of Virology studied bats captured from caves in Yunnan, which is thought to be where the animals at the source of the outbreak originated, reported the Mail on Sunday. The caves are about 1,000 miles from Wuhan – where the virus was first reported in a live animal market. However, the new evidence has now thrown the original theory into question.

Although the UK Government maintains that ‘the balance of scientific advice’ still suggests the virus first made the jump to humans from the market, the possibility of a slab leak can no longer be completely ruled out.