British Health Secretary Matt Hancock arrives at 10 Downing Street for the COVID-19 committee meeting in London, Britain, on May 6, 2020. (Photo by Tim Ireland/Xinhua)

"We have looked into this but we don't have any evidence that this is a man-made coronavirus."

LONDON, May 7  -- The British government has not seen any evidence to suggest that the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 was man-made, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said.

Hancock made the remark while attending a Q&A program with Sky News on Wednesday to answer questions from the broadcaster's viewers and readers on coronavirus.

Asked by viewer John Fletcher whether there is any link between the virus and laboratories researching virus in China's Wuhan, the secretary said: "well, we have looked into this but we don't have any evidence that this is a man-made coronavirus."

"I understand what John (the viewer) is getting at but we haven't seen any evidence of that link," he added.