Coronavirus: US wants to enter Wuhan virology lab, and Trump questions China death toll
- ‘We are still asking the Chinese Communist Party to allow experts to get in to that virology lab,’ he says
- Trump insists in White House briefing that China’s death toll is higher
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday called on China to grant the United States access to the Wuhan laboratory that has emerged as a flashpoint between the two nations in a clash over the origin and handling of the coronavirus.
“We are still asking the Chinese Communist Party to allow experts to get into that virology lab so that we can determine precisely where this virus began,” said Pompeo on Fox News.
Pompeo’s comment escalated conjecture surrounding the lab as US President Donald Trump amplified doubts around the extent of the Covid-19 spread in China by announcing in a Twitter post that the country “has just announced a doubling in the number of their deaths from the Invisible Enemy. It is far higher than that and far higher than the US, not even close!”
The tweet was not accurate as China only announced a revised increase in deaths out of Wuhan by 50 per cent. The number of cases in China – more than 83,700 – still trails that of the US, which has more than 679,000.
Addressing reporters later on Friday, Trump doubled down on his assertion, stating that China had the most deaths in the world.
