Chinese authorities have been accused of initially downplaying the outbreak and last week authorities in Wuhan admitted mistakes in counting their death toll and revised the figure up by 50 percent.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (Photo: AFP)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday urged China to be as transparent as possible about the coronavirus outbreak, as Beijing faces mounting pressure over its management of the crisis.
Critics have accused China of downplaying the scale and scope of the outbreak when it first emerged late last year, while conspiracy theories have swirled in the US the virus could have been leaked from a lab.
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Merkel urged for more information about the early days of the outbreak, which originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
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On Monday, the German Chancellor told media, “I believe the more transparent China is about the origin story of the virus, the better it is for everyone in the world in order to learn from it”.
According to the Chinese scientists, the virus was likely first transmitted to humans at a wet market where wild animals were sold.
Chinese authorities have been accused of initially downplaying the outbreak and last week authorities in Wuhan admitted mistakes in counting their death toll and revised the figure up by 50 percent.
Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron told the Financial Times that it would be “naive” to think China had handled the pandemic well”.
“There are clearly things that have happened that we don’t know about”, he added.
Last week, Merkel has announced plans to slowly ease restrictions brought in to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
France extended its nationwide lockdown for another month in a bid to halt the coronavirus pandemic, as other hard-hit countries considered easing their measures with hopes rising that death rates may soon plateau.
France reported a slight increase in hospital deaths on Monday — though still below its record numbers of last week — and a slight dip in intensive care patients for a fifth day running.
Recently, US intelligence agencies debated whether China “deliberately” under-reported its number of cases and deaths due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.
According to the reports, the US intelligence dispatches, which also doubted the Wuhan wet market theory of the origin of Covid-19, from China reached up to the White House.
Meanwhile, the worldwide death toll from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic rose to 1,65,216 on Monday, according to a tally from official sources compiled.
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