The Executive Director of Health Emergencies Programme at the World Health Organisation, Michael J. Ryan assures that the novel coronavirus had a natural origin.

The reiteration from the WHO Chief comes after the US President Donald Trump attacked the World Health Organisation for hiding fact about coronavirus infection and not being transparent in their communication to the countries of the world.

The United States President also commented that the contagious virus might have emerged from a virology institute in Wuhan, China. Responding to the statements made by the US President, the Executive Director at WHO, Michael J. Ryan said the WHO teams have listened “again and again” to many scientists who have looked at the gene sequences and the virus. Ryan said, “We are assured that this virus is natural in origin.”

The WHO Executive Director also said that its crucial to establish the natural host of the virus, which could help pave the way for a better understanding of it and ways to prevent and respond to future outbreaks.

In a press conference held at the White House on Thursday, the US President Donald Trump stated that he was confident that the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China is the place of origin of the coronavirus. President Trump went ahead to criticise the World Health Organisation for not alerting the countries of the world in a timely manner.

In another interview, the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said, “With respect to the WHO, we know that they had one job, right? A single mission: To prevent the spread of a pandemic. We know that the leader of that organisation travelled to China and then declined to declare it a pandemic until everyone in the world knew that was already true.”

The United States has temporarily stopped funding the World Health Organisation. The US was the largest single donor of the WHO.

Many scientists from around the world believe that the virus emerged from a market place in the Chinese city that is linked to an animal that has not yet been identified.