U.S. President Joe Biden signed a bill that requires declassification of information related to the origins of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the White House said.
Biden said he shared Congress' goal of releasing as much information as possible about the origin of COVID-19.
"In implementing this legislation, my administration will declassify and share as much of that information as possible, consistent with my constitutional authority to protect against the disclosure of information that would harm national security," Biden said in a statement.
The bill sailed through the Senate and House of Representatives without opposition before being sent to the White House.
The department made its judgment with "low confidence" in a classified intelligence report. The FBI has also assessed that the pandemic likely originated from a lab leak. Four other U.S. agencies still judge that COVID-19 was likely the result of natural transmission, while two are undecided.
Biden noted that he had directed intelligence agencies to investigate COVID-19's origins in 2021, that work is ongoing and his administration would continue to review all classified information, including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
