It is extremely unlikely that any person in China would dare to make any public statement without the tacit approval of the CCP.
I am wondering if this announcement is part of the insistent CCP narrative that Covid originated from some person eating bats, or MORE LIKELY, introduced by some foreign agency to damage China's unquestionably high reputation.
It must NEVER be attributed to a leak from the Virus Research Lab, where they do extensive research on ..... bats, and which just happens to be located in the city where it all started.
Mere speculation on my part, of course.