Open up on the origin of COVID-19: US tells China

The US President, Donald Trump has said that his administration was trying to determine where the deadly Coronavirus disease originated from.

Also addressing reporters yesterday Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on the Chinese government “to come clean” on what it knows about COVID-19.

ADVERTISEMENT

During his daily briefing on the pandemic at the White House on Wednesday, Trump was asked about the reports of the virus escaping from a laboratory in Wuhan China, where the coronavirus started.

“We are doing a very thorough examination of this horrible situation that happened,” Trump said, according to Al Jazeera.

Pressed further on whether he had raised the subject in his conversations with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the US leader added, “I don’t want to discuss what I talked to him about the laboratory, I just don’t want to discuss, it’s inappropriate right now.”

Coronavirus has killed at least 136,000 people around the world, with almost 31,000 in the US alone.

Globally, more than two million people have tested positive with the virus, while at least half a million have recovered.

ADVERTISEMENT

Trump’s top diplomat, Pompeo, told Fox News after Trump’s news conference, that, “We know this virus originated in Wuhan, China,” and noted that the Institute of Virology was only a handful of miles from the market, where people first came down with the disease.

“We really need the Chinese government to open up” and help explain “exactly how this virus spread,” Pompeo added.

“The Chinese government needs to come clean,” he said.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology which is backed by the government had dismissed reports that the virus may have been artificially synthesised at one of its laboratories or escaped from its facility as far back as February.

Read also: COVID-19: China approves trials for two more vaccines