Published 08:56 IST, May 4th 2020
Pompeo says, 'Enormous evidence' COVID originated in lab'; contradicts himself later
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday contradicted his own statement over the origin of the COVID-19 in China.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday contradicted his own statement over the origin of the COVID-19 in China. During a television interview, Pompeo said that "there is a significant amount of evidence that it came from the laboratory in Wuhan." He also added that the "best experts seem to think that they were man-made."
However, according to the United States Intelligence Community's statement, the Coronavirus was not "man-made" or "genetically modified." When he was asked about that, Pompeo said, "That's right. I agree with that. I have no reason to doubt that that is accurate at this point", completely ruling out his previous statement.
Coronavirus crisis in the US
Leading the number of worldwide cases of novel coronavirus COVID-19 infection, the United States has become the new epicentre of the pandemic surpassing China, Italy, and Iran. Currently, there are a total of 1,88,029 cases of Coronavirus with around 68,587 deaths. The Trump administration has been facing momentous criticism for failing to contain the outbreak.
Meanwhile, New York -- one of the worst-hit spots in the US, has seen a total of 24,648 deaths and over 323,883 COVID-19 positive cases. However, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo earlier had asserted that the worst phase of the coronavirus pandemic is over. According to him, the numbers are saying that they can now control the spread of the virus.
COVID-19 across the globe
First detected in China's Wuhan, at present, there are around 3,563,596 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection across the globe and the disease has led to the death of around 248,135 people. In a ray of hope, around 1,153,847 people are also reported to have recovered.
Updated 08:57 IST, May 4th 2020