Download the all-new Republic app:

Published 08:09 IST, April 25th 2020

US to not spare China, says 'will make sure countries know Covid originated in Wuhan'

Blaming China yet again for outbreak Coronavirus, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that US will make sure countries understand covid originated in Wuhan

Reported by: Navashree Nandini
Follow: Google News Icon
  • share
null | Image: self
Advertisement

Blaming China yet again for the outbreak of the global Coronavirus pandemic, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on Friday said that the United States is working with other countries to make sure they understand that coronavirus originated in Wuhan, China.

Stressing that the burden is on Beijing to explain where the virus came from, Pompeo told in an interview that China knew about the virus by December 2019 and even after notifying the World Health Organisation (WHO), it did not share the complete share all of the information.

Advertisement

READ | Joe Biden says Donald Trump will try to postpone 2020 presidential elections

"We need to hold accountable the parties responsible for the deaths here in the United States and the enormous economic costs that have been posed on the US," he said. "Diplomatically, we're reaching out to countries all across the world to help them do the right thing, to help their economies get started back up, to make sure that when the time is right we can get international travel kicked back up so that global commerce can recommence, he added.

Advertisement

He went on to say that China failed to comply with the international health regulations of the WHO. "China failed to comply with most fundamental and international health regulations of the WHO and did a lot of things and we can talk about them at great length to cover that up."

READ | China 'will pay a price' for causing 'huge challenge' for global economy, says Pompeo

Advertisement

Pompeo alleged that the World Health Organization failed in its mission to protect the world from the pandemic.  

He assured that the US is not going to let the same thing happen again. "We're going to set up something, a system, which delivers an outcome which reduces the risk that anything like this can ever happen again, from China or from anyplace else," he said.  

READ | Cutting WHO funding isn't only dangerous—Trump doesn’t have the authority: Hillary Clinton

Advertisement

Trump halts WHO funding

US president Donald Trump last week halted US funding to the UN body after alleging mismanaging the coronavirus crisis. Trump has blamed WHO's "very much sided" approach to China on coronavirus crisis, asserting that many people are unhappy with the global health agency and feel that "it's been very unfair". Trump said: "Today I am instructing my administration to halt the funding of WHO while the review is conducted is assessing WHO's role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the Coronavirus.

In an obvious reference to China, he said: "Everybody knows what's going on there." American taxpayer provides about 400 million to 500 million dollars per year to WHO in contrast China contributes only 40 million dollars or less. As the highest contributor, it is our duty to insist on full accountability."

READ | US: Joe Biden, DNC ink fundraising deal as he widens party influence

08:09 IST, April 25th 2020