The coronavirus was stolen from Canada for use as a bioweapon.

Information provided by a Chinese government portal and the CDC suggests the origin place of the 2019 coronavirus outbreak is from China.

Information provided by a Chinese government portal and the CDC suggests the origin place of the 2019 coronavirus outbreak is from China.A claim that the novel coronavirus was stolen from Canada for use as a bioweapon by China has been circulating online. It states that the virus was stolen by Chinese scientist Xiangguo Qiu from the Canadian National Microbiology Laboratory and it was handed to the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory.

The novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) handbook published by the Guangzhou government for prevention and treatment of pneumonia caused by it suggests that Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan might be the source for the outbreak.

According to the report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, patients infected with respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus in Wuhan had links to the large seafood and animal market which suggests that it might be a source for transmission of the coronavirus from animals to humans.

The Global Times article dated 3 March 2020 states that a virologist from a Chinese university said that the genomic sequence of the novel coronavirus is 80% similar to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which originated from bats and that humans cannot create the novel coronavirus out of SARS virus by design.

There is no credible evidence available to prove that Chinese scientist Xiangguo took samples of coronavirus from the Canada laboratory and gave it to the Wuhan laboratory to develop it into a bioweapon.

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19 including symptoms, prevention and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organisation or your national healthcare authority.