Scientists working at the Wuhan lab confessed to being bitten by COVID-19 infected bats in a cave, while collecting samples.
A video - which first emerged two years ago - also apparently shows scientists working on "live viruses" without gloves and masks, in an apparent breach of the World Health Organisation safety rules.
?According to the?Daily Mail?report,?staff who worked for the top-secret facility in China may have been handling bats and taking their samples without gloves.??
The World Health Organization (WHO) safety rules on PPE, strictly ruled to not handle such pathogens without gloves or proper PPE kits.? ??
One researcher in the video says that 'one animal's fangs had gone through his rubber gloves like a needle' while he was collecting samples in a cave.
According to The Sun, the claims come just 24 hours after it was revealed the scientist dubbed ¡°Patient Zero¡± who vanished from the Wuhan lab at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak is still missing despite a year-long search.
Also Read:?Wuhan Wildly Celebrates New Year As Rest Of The World Is Forced Into Strict Lockdowns
The video also then cuts to a person's limb showing swelling from another bite. The narrator of the video points out the fact that bats can carry a variety of potent viruses, reports The Taiwan Times.?
These revelations raise the possibility that the scientists may have become infected with a coronavirus from the bat bite, and it could even be the virus we now identify as COVID-19, and may explain how the virus jumped from bats to humans in the first place.?
The 13-member WHO team which arrived in Wuhan, to probe the origins of COVID-19 are currently put up in a hotel in Wuhan to serve 14-day quarantine.
In its fact sheet on the activity at the Wuhan lab, the US said, "This raises questions about the credibility of WIV senior researcher Shi Zhengli's public claim that there was 'zero infection' among the WIV's staff and students of SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-related viruses."
"Accidental infections in labs have caused several previous virus outbreaks in China and elsewhere, including a 2004 SARS outbreak in Beijing that infected nine people, killing one," the US said.
The video, however, isn't available online and the logo suggests it is from?CCTV-13?a news channel of China Central Television and the biggest news channel on mainland China.
Last year, China was denounced by many countries, including the United States, Britain, and Australia for its mishandling of the COVID-19 outbreak that spilled over the world and led to a pandemic; China has denied all allegations.??
A Chinese virologist had recently claimed the coronavirus was manufactured in a lab in Wuhan, China. She also claimed to have a proof for the same. Li-Meng Yan, who has supposedly fled China after becoming a whistleblower in the case, claimed to have proof to show that the deadly virus was made in a Wuhan lab.??
Also Read:?One Year On, Wuhan Market At Epicentre Of Coronavirus Outbreak Remains Barricaded And Empty