The spy agency assessment's was based on an unspecified intelligence operation code-named "Saaremaa" as well as on publicly-available data. It had been commissioned by the office of Germany's chancellor at the time, Angela Merkel, but never published, the report said.

Federal Intelligence Service, Germany's foreign intelligence service in 2020, reportedly said there is an 80 percent to 90 percent likelihood that the coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic was accidentally released from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The German parliament's oversight committee has called on the government to share the findings of an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus pandemic with the public, after reports that the government covered it up.

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.

Was the report on the causes of the pandemic kept under lock and key? Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel denies it, and Beijing appeals. As reported by the media, the German foreign intelligence service,

China on Thursday urged caution and political restraint in the wake of reports that Germany's BND intelligence agency gathered plausible evidence that the coronavirus pandemic originated with a laboratory leak in the Chinese city of Wuhan.