Pompeo steadfast in blaming China for virus

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo remains steadfast in blaming China for keeping the truth about the coronavirus origin hidden from the rest of the world.

"Whether it began in the lab or whether it began someplace else. There's an easy way to find out the answer to that," said Pompeo Wednesday from the State Department.

"Transparency, openness, the kinds of things that nations do when they really want to be part of solving a global pandemic, when they really want to participate in the things that keep human beings safe and get economies going back again."

This comes after a theory was floated that two laboratories were researching coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, before the pandemic started.

It was then given added traction last week when President Donald Trump suggested he was confident that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the origin of the deadly outbreak.

The virus is known to have infected more than 3.6 million and killed more than 251,000 people, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins that all experts agree is an undercount because of limited testing, differences in counting the dead and concealment by some governments.

The U.S. has seen over 71,000 deaths amid its 1.2 million confirmed infections, and Europe has endured over 144,000 reported deaths.

An Associated Press analysis, meanwhile, found that U.S. infection rates outside the New York City area are in fact rising, notably in rural areas. It found New York's progress against the virus was overshadowing increasing infections elsewhere.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks.

For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.