Beijing [China], May 1 (ANI): China on Wednesday accused the US for originating COVID-19, claiming America was trying to 'shift the blame' after US President Donald Trump said that the disease was leaked from a Wuhan lab, New York Post reported.

The Chinese government has said that 'substantial evidence' suggested that COVID might have emerged from the US earlier than the outbreak in China, while insisting the lab leak theory was 'extremely unlikely' in a white paper.

Chinese officials said, 'The US government, instead of facing squarely its failure in response to Covid-19 and reflecting on its shortcomings, has tried to shift the blame and divert people's attention by shamelessly politicising SARS-CoV-2 origins tracing.'

According to the report, COVID-19 circulated in the US earlier than it was officially determined. The Chinese government's allegations against the US follow the White House revamped its COVID-19 information earlier this month to push the statement that COVID-19 leaked out of a lab in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

A section on the new White House webpage stated, 'A lab-related incident involving gain-of-function research is the most likely the origin of COVID-19,' New York Post reported.

Earlier in January, the CIA said that COVID-19 was more likely to have begun in a lab rather than in nature, after it previously could not come to a determination. However, the agency warned that it had 'low confidence' and made clear that the lab origin and natural origin both remain possible.

A House panel and other federal agencies, like the FBI, reached a similar conclusion regarding the lab leak theory. However, in the white paper, China mentioned that a joint study carried out with the World Health Organisation in the past found that COVID-19 was probably transmitted from bats to humans through another animal, New York Post reported.

The Chinese report, which also analysed the prevention and control of the disease, criticised the US for not doing more to combat COVID-19. China said, 'It has severely undermined joint international efforts in the fight against the pandemic and become a weak link in global public health governance.'

Notably, China has faced accusations that it covered up the severity of the COVID-19 virus in the early months. In the report, Chinese officials said that the US cannot continue to 'turn a deaf ear to the numerous questions over its conduct.' (ANI)