'No way': Wuhan lab director rejects coronavirus origins from its facility

As multiple theories claim that the novel coronavirus originated from laboratory in China, the director of Wuhan Institute of Virology has rejected the claims, calling it "impossible". 

In an interview published by state media on Saturday, Yuan Zhiming, director of the institute said that "there's no way this virus came from us".  

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Zhiming also said to CTGN that nobody from his staff had been infected with COVID-19 and added the "whole institute is carrying out research in different areas related to the coronavirus".

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Responding to whether the research suggesting that coronavirus originating from the institute, Zhiming said: "I know it's impossible."

"As people who carry out viral studies we clearly know what kind of research is going on at the institute and how the institute manages viruses and samples," Zhiming said.

Multiple conspiracy theories claimed that COVID-19 came out from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, specifically its P4 laboratory which is equipped to tackle dangerous viruses.

The Wuhan facility director also said that since the P4 laboratory is in Wuhan "people can't help but make associations", but certain media outlets are "deliberately trying to mislead people".

Earlier this week, US began its probe to know whether the virus came out of a virology institute with a high-security biosafety laboratory.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that US officials are doing a "full investigation" into how the COVID-19 "got out into the world".

(With AFP inputs)