On Thursday, the United States National Security Council (NSC) tweeted: “#China and #Russia are working around the clock to spread disinformation about the origins and spread of the Chinese virus, while the United States and Europe are focused on solving the problem and taking care of our people.”
The same day, responding to the tweet, US president Donald Trump reiterated the statement, saying that the world is "paying a big price" after China hid information on coronavirus. This is largely considered another escalation in the ongoing Beijing-US row over the pandemic.
"It would have been much better if we had known about this a number of months earlier. It could have been contained to that one area in China where it started," Trump said, PTI reported. The coronavirus pandemic has reportedly infected more than 2,10,300 people in at least 145 countries and over 9,000 people have died. "The world is paying a big price for what they [China] did and the world is paying a very big price for not letting them [information about coronavirus] come out," Trump said, according to the agency.
"If people would have known about it, it could have been stopped in place. It could have been stopped right where it came from China, if we would have known about it, if they would have known about it. But now the whole world almost is inflicted with this horrible virus and it's too bad," he said.
Washington and Beijing have been embroiled in a bitter blame game for COVID-19. The pandemic comes at a time of wide-ranging tension between the United States and China on issues from trade to human rights to Beijing's military buildup.
The US had summoned China's ambassador after a senior official in Beijing tweeted that the US military started the COVID-19 pandemic.
Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, in tweets last week in both Mandarin and English, suggested that "patient zero" in the global pandemic may have come from the United States—not the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan, where cases were first reported in late 2019. "It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation," tweeted Zhao, who is known for his provocative statements on social media.
In October last year, Wuhan hosted 2019 Military World Games, in which the US armed forces had participated. The outbreak of coronavirus disease was first reported from Wuhan, on 31 December 2019.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton, a Trump ally, has spoken of the "Chinese coronavirus" and in a recent statement vowed, "we will hold accountable those who inflicted it on the world."
While COVID-19 has largely come under control in China, it has killed more than 7,000 people around the world and severely disrupted daily life in Western countries.