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Sunday, Apr. 26, 2020

Is Wuhan the only place in China with a Biosafety Level-4 lab that studies coronaviruses?

Remaya Campbell, Gigafact
yes

The Wuhan Institute of Virology houses the only lab in the country meeting a rigorous international safety standard known as Biosafety Level-4. It is the lab where Chinese scientists sequenced the COVID-19 virus genetic map and are searching for a vaccine. It is not the only lab in China where scientists study coronaviruses, as a review of published research shows.

The lab's director, Yuan Zhiming, denied in an April interview with Chinese state-run TV that the lab had any role in the emergence of the coronavirus. In February, a Chinese news outlet noted that another virologist there, Shi Zhengli, said on her social media feed that she "would bet her life" that the outbreak had nothing to do with the lab.

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