US President Donald Trump says he has evidence COVID-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan, China but could not share what it is.
The most widely believed theory is the virus came from an animal, possibly a bat, in a Wuhan wet market, but during Thursday's press briefing Trump said he wasn't so sure.
Fox News reporter John Roberts asked him whether he had seen any evidence that gives him a "high degree of confidence" the virus originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
"Yes, I have," Trump replied.
Later in the press conference after being asked about the topic again, Trump said he has researchers investigating the evidence.
"We're going to see where it comes from and you know, look, you know every theory," he said.
"You had the theory from the lab, you had the theory from the bats, the type of bat, and the bat is 40 miles away, so it couldn't have been here and it couldn't have been there, and we have a lot of theories.
"But, yeah, we have people looking at it very, very strongly. Scientific people, intelligence people and others, and we're going to put it all together and I think we're going to have a very good answer eventually."
When Roberts asked what the evidence was Trump declined to answer.
"I can't tell you that, I'm not allowed to tell you that."
These claims come after the United States Intelligence community determined the virus was not man-made on Thursday.
"The entire Intelligence Community has been consistently providing critical support to US policymakers and those responding to the COVID-19 virus, which originated in China," the Director of National Intelligence wrote in a statement.
"The Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified.
"As we do in all crises, the community's experts respond by surging resources and producing critical intelligence on issues vital to US national security.
"The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan."
When Trump was asked about the statement he said he wasn't sure what it would mean.
China's foreign ministry has also disputed claims the virus was made in a lab before infecting over 3 million people, saying the World Health Organisation (WHO) had found no evidence on the matter.
Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters during a briefing in Beijing that the World Health Organization's officials "have said multiple times there is no evidence the new coronavirus was created in a laboratory," Reuters reported.
But Trump has slammed the WHO calling them a "public relations agency for China".
"They shouldn't be making excuses when people make horrible mistakes," Trump said.
"Especially mistakes that are causing hundreds of thousands of people around the world to die. I think the World Health Organization should be ashamed of themselves."
The United States is currently the epicentre for the virus with over one million confirmed cases and 62,000 deaths.
