American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that the US has ‘a significant amount of evidence’ that Covid-19 originated from a Chinese laboratory.

It comes after Donald Trump told the daily White House press briefing on Friday that he had seen evidence that Covid-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan, but would not go into further detail. 

The virus, which first broke out in the Chinese city at the end of last year, has killed around 240,000 people worldwide, including more than 67,000 in the US. 

Mr Pompeo said on Sunday that there was evidence the virus came from a Wuhan laboratory although he did not dispute US intelligence agencies' conclusion that it was not man-made.

He then appeared to go somewhat off message by stating: "The best experts so far seem to think it was man-made. I have no reason to disbelieve that at this point."

When the interviewer pointed out that this was not the conclusion of US intelligence agencies, Pompeo quickly backtracked: "I've seen what the intelligence community has said. I have no reason to believe that they've got it wrong."