Covid probably passed to humans from bats via other animal, finds WHO report

Much-delayed report from team that visited Wuhan all but rules out lab leak theory

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Covid-19 probably passed to humans from a bat via an intermediary animal, an international expert mission to China has concluded in a report, with investigators all but ruling out a laboratory leak.

The intermediate host hypothesis was deemed likely to very likely", while the theory that the virus escaped from a lab was considered extremely unlikely", according to a copy of the long-awaited final report seen by AFP on Monday before its official release.