'We need to see all the evidence': UK backs Biden over call for China to release Covid data

The White House has expressed its deep concerns about the WHO probe, saying the findings must be free from intervention by the Chinese government.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson backed US President Joe Biden’s call for China to make available raw data relating the outbreak of Covid-19.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it’s vital to get to bottom of how the pandemic originated.(AFP)

World Health Organization investigators who recently visited China concluded that it was extremely unlikely that the coronavirus leaked from a lab in the city of Wuhan. However, the White House has expressed its deep concerns about the probe, saying the findings must be free from intervention by the Chinese government.

The WHO appeared to back away from an outright rejection of the lab-leak theory on Friday. All avenues of research remain open, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a briefing. In an interview with Face the Nation/CBS News broadcast on Sunday, Johnson said it’s vital to get to bottom of how the pandemic originated.

“Was it in a - in a wet market? Did it come from the bats? Were the bats associated with the - the pangolins? All these questions are now matters of speculation,” he said. “We need to see the data. We need to see all the evidence. So I thoroughly support what President Biden has said about that.”