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Prime Minister Morrison has again called for an investigation into the origins of COVID-19, but did not commit to backing the "lab leak" theory.

The World Health Organisation today conceded that their earlier dismissal of that theory – which remains unproven – was premature.

Mr Morrison said Australia was only asking the question for the sake of the health of the world.

READ MORE: 'Good luck with that verballing': Albanese pressed on his plan to reopen Australia

"There is no politics in this," he said.

The Chinese government has attacked Australia over its support for an investigation.

"Now, we don't know about the lab and whether that was the initiation of this or not," Mr Morrison said.

"It may well have been, it may not have been. I don't have a view either way and I'm not in a position to make that judgement."

He said the world "deserved" answers.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said he is asking China to be more transparent as scientists search for the origins of the coronavirus.

Dr Tedros said getting access to raw data had been a challenge for the international team that travelled to China earlier this year to investigate the source of COVID-19.

The first human cases were identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

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Dr Tedros told reporters that the UN health agency based in Geneva is "asking actually China to be transparent, open and cooperate, especially on the information, raw data that we asked for at the early days of the pandemic".

He said there had been a "premature push" to rule out the theory that the virus might have escaped from a Chinese government lab in Wuhan – undermining WHO's own March report, which concluded that a laboratory leak was "extremely unlikely".

"I was a lab technician myself, I'm an immunologist, and I have worked in the lab, and lab accidents happen," Dr Tedros said.

"It's common."

In recent months, the idea that the pandemic started somehow in a laboratory — and perhaps involved an engineered virus — has gained traction, especially with President Joe Biden ordering a review of US intelligence to assess the possibility in May.

China has struck back aggressively, arguing that attempts to link the origins of COVID-19 to a lab are politically motivated and has suggested that the outbreak might have started abroad.

READ MORE: Study of Australian COVID-19 cases reveals long-term health impacts of virus

At the WHO's annual meeting of health ministers in the spring, China said that the future search for COVID-19's origins should continue — in other countries.

Most scientists suspect that the coronavirus originated in bats, but the exact route by which it first jumped into people – via an intermediary animal or in some other way – has not yet been determined.

It typically takes decades to narrow down the natural source of an animal virus like Ebola or SARS.

Dr Tedros said that "checking what happened, especially in our labs, is important" to nailing down if the pandemic had any laboratory links.

"We need information, direct information on what the situation of this lab was before and at the start of the pandemic," the WHO chief said, adding that China's cooperation was critical.

"If we get full information, we can exclude (the lab connection)."

Throughout the pandemic, Dr Tedros has repeatedly praised China for its speed and transparency despite senior WHO officials internally griping about obfuscation from their Chinese counterparts.

Last year, The Associated Press found that WHO was frustrated by a lack of details from China during the early stages of the coronavirus' spread and showed that China was clamping down on the hidden hunt for the pandemic's origins.

Numerous public health experts have also called for an independent examination of COVID-19's origins, arguing WHO does not have the political clout to conduct such a forensic analysis and that the UN agency has failed after more than a year to extract critical details from China.

Jamie Metzl, who has led a group of scientists calling for a broader origins investigation, welcomed Dr Tedros' comments but said it was "deeply unfortunate and dangerous" that there were no current plans for a probe led by experts beyond the UN health agency, saying that China has repeatedly blocked requests for all relevant records and samples.

Georgetown University law professor Lawrence Gostin, an expert in public health law, said Dr Tedros' unusual plea for Chinese cooperation underlines how weak WHO is.

"WHO has no powers or political heft to demand access to information critical for global health," Professor Gostin, who also is director of a WHO Collaborating Centre on Public Health Law and Human Rights,

"All Tedros can do is use the bully pulpit, but it will fall on deaf ears," he said.

Any WHO-led mission to China also requires government approval for all experts who travel to the country, as well as permission to visit field sites and final approval on any trip report.

Dr Tedros' appeal for transparency was echoed by German Health Minister Jens Spahn, who urged Chinese officials to allow the investigation into the origins of the virus to proceed.

"We do appreciate the cooperation of the Chinese government so far for the first mission," Mr Spahn said.

"But that's not yet enough."

With Associated Press.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese has suggested Australia would not reopen to the world under his leadership until the country has the capability to manufacture mRNA vaccines, which might not be until 2023.

Mr Albanese, who has not returned to his Sydney electorate since the city went into lockdown, said: "When you achieve those things you'll be able to participate in global activity."

The man vying to be the next Prime Minister of Australia was pressed today about when he would reopen the country if elected.

"I have a four-point plan and it's a four-point plan that I've been advocating now for all of this year and from the end of last year it is: an effective rollout of the vaccine, national purpose-built quarantine, an effective public information campaign, and to manufacture mRNA vaccines here."

"When will you open Australia to the world then?" he was asked.

"I'm not the government."

"No but you're trying to provide Australians with an alternate view of leadership after the next election in that view…", 9News federal political reporter Jonathan Kearsley pressed.

"In that scenario when you achieve those things you'll be able to participate in global activity," Mr Albanese said.

"The world is opening up as Australia is locking down and that's as a direct result of a failure to rollout the vaccine effectively and a failure to have purpose-built quarantine facilities."

"So under what scenario does Australia open up to the rest of the world then? If the rest of the world is experiencing cases, increasing deaths, increasing like we're seeing in the UK, under what scenario does Australia open to the rest of the world?" Kearsley pressed.

"When we achieve the criteria that I've outlined in my four-point plan," Mr Albanese said.

"That fourth point you said was that we have to be manufacturing vaccines here, so you're saying we should not open up the rest of the world until we're manufacturing mRNA, that's what you just said, that could be 18 months away," Sydney Morning Herald and The Age political reporter Katina Curtis asked.

Mr Albanese sniped: "Good luck with that verballing," before adding: "Good try, good try. What you need to do is have more progress than is there now."

But Mr Albanese did not specify what progress would be required.

Industry Minister Christian Porter has said it could take 12-18 months to establish "a fully-equipped production and manufacturing facility with scale … at the outer timeframe three-plus years".

In response to Mr Albanese's comments, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said: "Anthony Albanese's plan to open Australia up in 2023 I don't think is something Australians would welcome.

"It is either an absurd plan or he doesn't understand how long it takes to implement the element of what he is talking about, so, look, I will leave his ideas to him, we will get on with the program that we are running and I will leave him to his plans."

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Residents across five states and territories have been told to rug up and brace for a series of cold fronts set to slam southern and southern Australia.

Severe weather warnings have been issued for NSW, the ACT, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia, with damaging wind gusts likely to affect parts of these four states and territories today and tomorrow.

In addition to the wind, some areas will also see heavy rain, thunderstorms, hail and snow.

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While cold, wet and windy weather is typical over the southern half of Australia in winter, this will be one of the strongest weather systems of the season in terms of how widespread its impacts are.

Snow will be heavy in the alps and could reach low levels in Victoria and NSW by Saturday. It should even get cold enough for snow to settle in central NSW by Saturday.

Rain could also be heavy enough to cause flooding in southern NSW from Friday into Saturday, with a Flood Watch in place for the Tumut River.

New South Wales and the ACT

Parts of Sydney have already been bettered by heavy hail and rain today as the wild weather sets in.

Damaging winds in excess of 90 kilometres per hour, are possible in the Alpine, Southern Tablelands, Illawarra, Blue Mountains and elevated parts of the South Coast, ACT and parts of the South West Slopes from this afternoon and likely to continue into Saturday.

Higher terrain within the warning area is most at risk.

https://twitter.com/BOM_NSW/status/1415870006915653650

The BOM has warned of blizzard conditions possible above 1500 metres in the Alpine with blowing snow.

As the front approaches, the areas of damaging winds are forecast to extend north by Saturday morning, including the Hunter, Northern Tablelands, elevated parts of the Mid North Coast, and parts of the Sydney Metropolitan Area.

Conditions are expected to ease for NSW by Sunday evening.

Queensland

A vigorous westerly airflow is expected to develop over ranges during the early hours of Saturday morning in the wake of a trough passage across the region.

These winds, combined with the temperature profile of the atmosphere, will induce the threat of downslope damaging wind gusts on the eastern slopes of the Main Range.

Damaging winds, with peak gusts of 90 to 110 kilometres per hour are possible before sunrise on Saturday morning over a very localised area near the Main Range in southeast Queensland.

These conditions are most likely on the eastern slopes of the range and the nearby valleys within a few kilometres east of the base of the range.

Conditions are likely to ease from Saturday afternoon, but there is a risk of damaging winds gusts redeveloping about the Main Range peaks early Sunday morning.

Victoria

A cold front associated with a low pressure system to the southwest of Victoria will approach the state's west late Friday, and cross during Saturday.

The extreme weather is likely to impact East Gippsland, Mallee, South West, North East, West and South Gippsland and Wimmera over coming days.

In Alpine areas, winds up to 70 kilometres per hour peaking at 100 kilometre per hour are possible at elevations above 1000m during Friday and Saturday causing blizzard conditions about Alpine peaks.

https://twitter.com/BOM_Vic/status/1415865051332943873

In Western Victoria, dangerous winds are expected to develop on Friday afternoon and continuing overnight into Saturday morning.

Peak gusts will most likely be associated with showers and thunderstorms.

Winds are expected to shift west to south-westerly and ease below warning thresholds in the Mallee, Wimmera and inland parts of the South West district during the early hours of Saturday morning.

The risk will continue along exposed parts of the SW coast and Alpine peaks into Saturday afternoon.

Locations which may be affected include Mildura, Swan Hill, Horsham, Warrnambool, Portland and Falls Creek.

South Australia

A severe weather warning has been issued for Adelaide Metropolitan, Mount Lofty Ranges, West Coast, Lower Eyre Peninsula, Eastern Eyre Peninsula, Yorke Peninsula, Flinders, Mid North, Kangaroo Island, Riverland, Murraylands, Upper South East, Lower South East and parts of North West Pastoral and North East Pastoral districts.

A blast of windy and wet winter weather continues to affect the southern half of the State.

One front is currently crossing the southeast and another will cross southern SA during this afternoon and evening. Winds will gradually ease during Saturday.

Damaging northwest to south-westerly winds reaching up to 70 kilometres per hour at times will continue during today and tonight, gradually east for over the weekend.

Showers and thunderstorms will also produce short bursts of heavy rainfall.

Locations which may be affected include Adelaide, Mount Barker, Port Lincoln, Kingscote, Whyalla, Port Pirie, Clare, Mount Gambier, Keith, Murray Bridge and Renmark.

Wind gusts nearing 90 kilometres per hour have been reported at various places this morning, including 87 km/h at Mount Crawford, 82 km/h at Adelaide Airport and gusts of 82-85 km/h at Cummins, Cape Borda and Stenhouse Bay.

This article was reported with Weatherzone.