Biden orders urgent innovative report on Covid origins
US President Joe Biden has ordered cleverness agencies to research the emergence of Covid-19, amid growing controversy about the virus's origins.
In a statement, Mr Biden asked US intelligence groups to "redouble their efforts" and are accountable to him within 3 months.
Covid-19 was initially detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.
More than 168 million cases have since been confirmed worldwide and at least 3.5 million deaths reported.
Authorities linked early Covid cases to a seafood market in Wuhan, and researchers believed the virus primary passed to individuals from animals.
But recent US media reports suggest growing proof the virus could instead have emerged from a good laboratory in China.
Beijing has condemned the information and suggested it might have come from a US laboratory instead.
In a White House statement introduced on Wednesday, President Biden said he previously asked for a report on the origins of Covid-19 after taking office, "including whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident".
On getting it this month, he asked for "additional follow-up".
"Currently, the US Intelligence Network has coalesced around several likely scenarios but hasn't reached a definitive summary on this dilemma," Mr Biden said.
"Here is their current posture: 'While two factors found in the IC leans toward the previous scenario and 1 leans considerably more toward the latter - each with low or average confidence - nearly all elements do not believe there is satisfactory information to assess someone to become more likely compared to the other.'"
The president has now asked agencies to "redouble their efforts to accumulate and analyse information that could bring us nearer to a definitive conclusion", and are accountable to him within 3 months. He asked that Congress come to be kept "fully apprised" of the work.
He concluded by telling the US would "keep dealing with like-minded partners around the world to press China to participate in a full, transparent, evidence-based international investigation and provide usage of all relevant data and evidence".
But a Washington Post column on Wednesday accused the Biden administration of thwarting congressional inquiries into Covid-19's origins, while passing the buck to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Mr Biden's statement as well comes as CNN reported the president's administration this planting season shut down a state department investigation into if the virus could have leaked from a Wuhan lab, deeming the probe an ineffective utilization of resources.
