The US Central Intelligence Agency has assessed that the Covid-19 pandemic is “more likely” to have emerged from a lab rather than from nature, an agency spokesperson said on Saturday.

The agency had for years said it could not conclude whether Covid-19 was the result of a lab incident or it originated in nature.

But in the final weeks of the Biden administration, former CIA director William Burns asked CIA analysts and scientists to make a clear determination, stressing the pandemic’s historical significance, according to a senior US official.

The CIA says it has “low confidence” in its assessment that a “research-related origin of the Covid-19 pandemic is more likely” and notes in its statement that both scenarios – lab origin and natural origin – remain plausible.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Beijing rejects US agency report saying Covid-19 likely emerged from Chinese lab leak

Beijing rejects US agency report saying Covid-19 likely emerged from Chinese lab leak

It was unclear the extent to which the agency has collected new intelligence on Covid-19’s origins and whether that new evidence was used to formulate the latest assessment.