US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on Monday (local time) lambasted Beijing for covering up the Coronavirus outbreak in China saying that the US and the world is beginning to" build up its efforts to push back" and hold China accountable.
Pompeo in an interview with Rob Schmitt of Wake Up America on Newsmax on Monday cited India as an example of pushing back Chinese products by banning Chinese apps as well.
"We have begun to do that already, and you can in fact see the world beginning to build up its efforts to push back and hold accountable China as well. If you watch what Australia's doing and other countries - you see what India is doing," Pompeo said.
"The world understands the simple fact that this virus, this Wuhan virus, came from China and that the Chinese Communist Party covered up what they knew about the risk associated with this virus," he added.
The Secretary of State further attacked Beijing for allowing people to travel internationally when they should not have done so and further they should have called for a collective response by other countries.
"They should have alerted the world to this. And as a result, we've now had a million-plus people killed around the world, enormous economic devastation. The Chinese Communist Party bears direct responsibility for this, and the world needs a collective response to it," Pompeo stated.
Pompeo has repeatedly hit out at Beijing for its handling of COVID-19 stating that the CCP knew how virulent COVID-19 was.
As per the latest updates by Johns Hopkins University, the global coronavirus cases stand at 72,847,422 with 1,621,150 deaths reported worldwide from the virus. The US continues to be the worst-affected country in the world by the pandemic reporting 16.5 million cases and 300k deaths.
( With inputs from ANI )
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