The nuanced finding suggests the agency believes the totality of evidence makes a lab origin more likely than a natural origin.

The Central Intelligence Agency previously said that two explanations were plausible, a lab leak or a natural source for the virus. But under new agency director John Ratcliffe, the CIA has changed its view, which is now in line with that of the Department of Energy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The CIA on Saturday offered a new assessment on the origin of the Covid outbreak, saying the coronavirus is "more likely" to have leaked from a Chinese lab than to have come from animals. But the intelligence agency cautioned it had "low confidence" in this determination.