Coronavirus: China could have stopped virus: Donald Trump

Donald Trump has warned China that it should face consequences if it was ‘knowingly responsible’ for the coronavirus pandemic.

New Hampshire residents rally at the State House in Concord, calling on the government to re-open the state for business. Picture: AFP

US President Donald Trump has warned China that it should face consequences if it was “knowingly responsible” for the coronavirus pandemic, as he ratcheted up criticism of Beijing over its handling of the outbreak.

“It could have been stopped in China before it started and it wasn’t, and the whole world is suffering because of it,” Mr Trump said on Sunday.

The latest volley in a war of words between the world’s two biggest economies came as the coronavirus pandemic in the US’s hardest-hit state, New York, started to wane and as more protesters rallied to lift social-distancing ­restrictions.

“If it was a mistake, a mistake is a mistake. But if they were knowingly responsible, yeah, I mean, then sure there should be consequences,” Mr Trump said.

Protesters rally against California’s stay at home order in downtown San Diego on Saturday. Picutre: AFP

He did not elaborate on what actions the US might take. Mr Trump and senior aides have accused China of a lack of transparency after the coronavirus broke out late last year in its city of Wuhan. This week he suspended aid to the World Health Organisation accusing it of being “China- centric”.

The director of a maximum-security laboratory in China’s coronavirus ground-zero city of Wuhan has rejected claims that it could be the source of the outbreak, calling it “impossible”.

Chinese scientists have said the virus probably jumped from an animal to humans in a market that sold wildlife. But the existence of the ­facility has fuelled conspiracy theories that the germ spread from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, specifically its P4 laboratory which is equipped to handle dangerous viruses.

Yuan Zhiming, director of the laboratory, said that “there’s no way this virus came from us”.

None of his staff had been infected, he told the English-language state broadcaster CGTN, adding the “whole institute is carrying out research in different areas related to the coronavirus”.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday the number of people hospitalised in the state for COVID-19 was below 17,000 compared with about 18,000 at its peak.

With more than 235,000 reported coronavirus cases, New York accounts for about a third of all infections in the US, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

But the average person with COVID-19 in New York now infects 0.9 other people, compared with 1.4 at the height of the outbreak, Mr Cuomo said, indicating that the virus’s spread was slowing.

“You could argue that we are past the plateau and we are starting to descend,” the Governor said.

The number of cases worldwide on Sunday was 2,348,000 and the death toll rose to 161,402.

In Texas, Maryland and New Hampshire, protesters rallied in capital cities, calling on legislators to relax restrictions designed to reduce the spread of the virus.

The rally in Austin was organised by InfoWars, a right-wing website that has promoted conspiracy theories.

Protesters walk the American flag during the San Diego protest. Picture: AFP

At one point, the crowd began chanting “Fire Fauci,” referring to Anthony Fauci, the Trump administration’s top infectious disease expert who has been a strong advocate of social-distancing efforts.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has already set the second-largest state on a path to reopening, saying that shopping, hiking and some medical procedures may restart as soon as this week.

The protests come after Mr Trump on Saturday (AEST) used Twitter to signal support for previous rallies against virus-containment measures in three other state capitals. Mr Trump said then he wasn’t advocating for states to fully lift their stay-at-home orders and said governors should make such decisions on their own timetables. But on Sunday he said some of the governors had gone too far with restrictions. “I just think that some of the governors have gotten carried away,” he said, noting the protests in some states. “I really believe somebody sitting in a boat in a lake should be OK.”

Vermont and Minnesota also are easing some restrictions. In Washington state, where the virus was first detected in the US and triggered a three-week shutdown, Boeing said it would resume limited production of its wide-body commercial jetliners on Monday.

Other governors, including Gavin Newsom of California, have said restrictions won’t be lifted until they had greater capacity to test people and could respond more quickly to fresh outbreaks.

The Wall Street Journal