The World Health Organization's top emergency expert Mike Ryan said on Friday it would be "highly speculative" for the WHO to say the coronavirus did not emerge in China, where it was first detected in a food market in December 2019.
The statement comes as China, through its state media, is pushing a narrative that the virus existed abroad before it was discovered in Wuhan, referring to the presence of coronavirus on imported frozen food packaging and scientific papers claiming it had been circulating in Europe last year.
"I think it's highly speculative for us to say that the disease did not emerge in China," Mike Ryan said at a virtual briefing in Geneva.
"It is clear from a public health perspective that you start your investigations where the human cases first emerged," he added, asserting that evidence might then lead to other places.
The WHO has been accused by the Trump administration of being "China-centric", charges it has constantly denied.
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