Merkel commented on accusations of concealing coronavirus data

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected accusations of concealing information about the origin of the coronavirus. A representative of the ex-chancellor stated this to the newspaper Tagesspiegel.

She also recommended contacting the chancellery for information. According to her, official documents containing information about the government's work under Merkel are stored in the Federal Chancellor's Office, not in her office.

The day before, the newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit reported that the Federal Intelligence Service of Germany in 2020 determined that the cause of the coronavirus pandemic was likely an "accident in a laboratory" in Wuhan. The authors claimed that intelligence chief Bruno Kahl personally informed Merkel's chancellery about this, but she decided to keep this information secret.

On March 8, The New York Times reported that the Federal Court of the Eastern District of Missouri found the Chinese government guilty of concealing information about the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) at the beginning of the pandemic and ordered the country's authorities to pay about $24 billion. The lawsuit in this case was filed by the Missouri Attorney General's office in April 2020.