A group of experts from the World Health Organization(WHO) said on Tuesday that it has failed to find evidence that COVID-19 originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

In a press conference in the city, the WHO team said that it has reached the tentative conclusion after looking into what happened at the beginning of the outbreak and how the virus emerged and was transmitted to humans. 

Peter Ben Embarek, head of the WHO team, said that it is "extremely unlikely" the virus was leaked from a Chinese lab, adding the team would no longer pursue research into the possibility. 

Embarek suggested the virus most likely jumped to humans via an intermediary species or could have been transmitted through cold chain food packaging. 

The WHO team has spent several weeks on a fact-finding mission in Wuhan, visiting hospitals, research institutes and a seafood market tied to the outbreak.