Claims promoted by the Trump administration that the global COVID-19 pandemic originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the central Chinese city are a 'pure fabrication'," the institute's director said.

Wang Yanyi was quoted by state media on Sunday as saying the institute did not have "any knowledge before that nor had we ever met, researched or kept the virus...We didn't even know about the existence of the virus, so how could it be leaked from our lab when we didn't have it?"