"The U.S. Intelligence Community does not know exactly where, when, or how the COVID-19 virus was transmitted initially but has coalesced around two likely scenarios," the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said, adding that the majority believes there is not "sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other."

In both cases, however, ODNI said the agencies that back one theory of origin or the other did so with "low or moderate confidence" - which in spy jargon means they believe the evidence supporting their view is far from conclusive.