WHO expert rules out man-made origin of COVID-19

MOSCOW -- Concerns over the artificial origins of COVID-19 do not have any value, Russian virologist and expert at the World Health Organization Dmitry Lvov said.

"Coronaviruses are primarily viruses associated with bats. Someone could have been infected either in a room where a bat spent the night or in a cave where bats usually live in large numbers," he said.

Roughly 150 viruses have been transmitted to humans from animals during the domestication of wild animals, Lvov told a Russian television program last week.

"A person could have eaten some meat from animals that have ecological ties with bats, thus becoming the first source of infections," he added.