FBI Director Christopher Wray has said the agency has assessed that a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, likely caused the Covid-19 pandemic. "The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan," Mr Wray told Fox News.
His comments follow a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday that the US Energy Department has assessed with low confidence the pandemic resulted from an unintended lab leak in China.
Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that the pandemic was likely the result of a natural transmission, and two are undecided, the WSJ reported.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Monday that the US government has not reached a definitive conclusion and consensus on the pandemic's origins.