 China has denounced the United States efforts to further investigate where the COVID-19 came from a Chinese lab. U.S. President Joe Biden has called on intelligence officials to redouble their work to find out how the virus was first transmitted to humans. China's foreign ministry accused the U.S. of political manipulation and blame shifting. It has rejected any link between COVID-19 and a virus research lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan. COVID-19 was first detected in Wuhan in late 2019. Since then, more than 168 million cases have been confirmed worldwide and about 3.5 million deaths reported. Authorities linked early cases to a seafood market in Wuhan, leading scientists to theorize that the virus had first passed to humans from animals.