Biden said the US intelligence community was split on whether the virus was the result of a lab accident or whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal.

Biden asked the groups to report back to him within the next 90 days.

Since Covid-19 was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, more than 168-million infections have been confirmed globally. To date, at least 3.5-million people have already succumbed to the virus.