BEIJING, December 3. /TASS/. The United States should inform the international community about its biological laboratories operating around the world, China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lin Jian commented on US lawmakers’ allegations regarding the leak of COVID-19 from a Chinese laboratory.

"The United States should immediately respond to the legitimate concerns of the international community, actively share data on early suspected cases of diseases in the country with the World Health Organization (WHO), and disclose information about Fort Detrick and US biological laboratories around the world," the Chinese spokesman said.

He also urged the US to refrain from politicizing the issue of the COVID-19 outbreak and to stop demonizing other countries. Lin Jian reminded that WHO experts considered the COVID-19 lab leak theory "highly improbable" after visiting Wuhan.

Earlier, the US House of Representatives released a report on federal and state responses to the pandemic. The report stated that COVID-19 likely emerged from a "laboratory or research-related accident" in Wuhan, China.

Fort Detrick, Maryland, is home to the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, run by the Pentagon. It conducts biomedical research, including testing for infectious diseases.

A joint report by the World Health Organization and China, published in March 2021 following an international mission to Wuhan, stated that COVID-19 was most likely transmitted to humans from bats via another animal. However, experts failed to reach a definitive conclusion on the virus' emergence at Wuhan's Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. There were several hypotheses about the lab leak origin of COVID-19.