Germany's foreign intelligence service in 2020 put at 80%-90% the likelihood that the coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic was accidentally released from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology, two German newspapers reported on Wednesday.

German intelligence agency BND had assessed in 2020 that the possibility of SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing Covid-19 disease, originating in a Chinese laboratory was 80-95% but the German government blocked the release of the agency’s findings for nearly five years,

Germany's BND intelligence agency reportedly gathered plausible evidence that the coronavirus pandemic originated with a laboratory leak in the Chinese city of Wuhan, according to reports by three newspapers on Wednesday.

Former German chancellor Angela Merkel dismissed accusations of a cover-up regarding her handling of intelligence reports on the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, her spokeswoman said on Thursday.