China's foreign ministry said that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was not involved in the creation and leakage of the COVID-19 virus, the ministry's spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, said in a Wednesday press conference.

The statement was made in response to reports that the US Agency for International Development funded gain-of-function studies at the institution, which could have triggered the worldwide pandemic.

Guo said that the joint investigation of the World Health Organization and China found that it is "extremely unlikely" that the pandemic was caused by a laboratory leak.