Coronavirus: Mike Pompeo hits out at China over not allowing lab inspections

Amid the global coronavirus pandemic, the United States Secretary Mike Pompeo hit out at Chinaover coronavirus outbreak on Wednesday. During media briefings,Pompeo refused to rule out that deadly coronavirus leaked out of a laboratory in China's Wuhan city and pressed to allow inspectors into the sensitive laboratories surrounding the city.

"You have to remember -- these labs are still open inside of China these labs that contain complex pathogens that were being studied. It's not just the Wuhan Institute of Virology," Pompeo told reporters.

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"It's important that those materials are being handled in a safe and secure way such that there isn't accidental release," Pompeo told reporters.

During the media briefing, Pompeo also said that the United States "strongly believed" Beijing had failed to report the outbreak in a timely manner, in breach of World Health Organisation rules, and had failed to report human-to-human transmission of the virus "for a month until it was in every province inside of China."

China had halted testing of new virus samples, "destroyed existing samples" and failed to share samples with the outside world, "making it impossible to track the disease’s evolution," Pompeo also said.

The Trump administration has repeatedly criticised China's handling of the coronavirus outbreak, which began late last year in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has grown into a global pandemic. The outbreak has killed around 180,000 people globally, including more than 45,000 in the United States, according to a Reuters tally.

Chinese authorities initially suppressed news of the deadly virus, including detaining a prominent whistleblower.

Chinese scientists have since said that they suspect that the virus emerged late last year in a Wuhan meat market that butchered exotic animals.

But questions immediately arose because of the presence nearby of the maximum-security virology lab, with senior US officials bringing into the mainstream what was initially an online conspiracy theory.

Critics say President Donald Trump is eager to deflect from blame over his own handling of the pandemic, which has killed some 45,000 people in the United States, more than any other country.

(With inputs from agencies)