Washington:
As the US recorded more than 2,000 deaths on three consecutive days, President Donald Trump launched a scathing attack on China on Thursday. He said that the World Health Organization should be ashamed of itself, and likened it to a public relations agency for China. He also claimed that coronavirus, which has shattered economies, emerged from a virology lab in the Wuhan city of China.
"I think that the World Health Organization should be ashamed of themselves because they are like the public relations agency for China," Trump told reporters in the East Room of the White House. The administration has launched a probe into the role of the WHO on curbing the coronavirus pandemic and has temporarily suspended the US' financial assistance to it.
"With respect to the WHO, we know that they had one job, right? A single mission: To prevent the spread of a pandemic.We know that the leader of that organization travelled to China and then declined to declare it a pandemic until everyone in the world knew that was already true," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.
Trump also claimed with a high degree of confidence that coronavirus that has killed over 230,000 people globally so far and has shattered economies, emerged from a virology lab in the Wuhan city of China.
"Yes, I have. Yes, I have," Trump told reporters at the East Room of the White House when asked if he has seen anything at this point that gives him a high degree of confidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology is where the virus originated.
Pressed by reporters at the White House for details on what made him so confident, Trump replied: "I cannot tell you that."
Trump also hinted at imposing a tariff on China, but ruled out considering cancelling US debt obligations to the country as a punishment for the coronavirus. According to him, debt cancellation is a "rough game" and may harm the sanctity of the US currency.
Meanwhile, several Republican lawmakers demanded a Congressional hearing alleging that the WHO parroted the Chinese regime's "disinformation" on multiple occasions, including denying human-to-human transmission of the virus. They alleged the WHO delayed declaring Covid-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, chastised efforts to restrict travel, and continued to praise China as a global leader in public health despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
The United States is hardest hit by Covid-19 in terms of the number of fatalities and recorded 2,053 deaths on Thursday, after 2,502 deaths on Wednesday and 2,207 on Tuesday. The total toll stands at 62,906, according to Johns Hopkins University.
European and US markets finished the day in negative territory, as a spate of figures confirmed fears about how the Covid-19 crisis is pulverising global growth.
The latest jobless claims by another 3.84 million Americans translate into a jarring conclusion – roughly nine per cent of the US population has filed for unemployment benefits in six weeks.
The depressing US jobs data compounded the tough message from European Central Bank Christine Lagarde.
"The euro area is facing an economic contraction of a magnitude and speed that are unprecedented in peacetime," she warned.ECB economists expect output in the 19-nation currency club to shrink by "five to 12 per cent" this year, she added.
Eurostat figures showed the eurozone economy was estimated to have shrunk by 3.8 per cent in the first quarter.
Germany, Europe's biggest economy, "will experience the worst recession in the history of the federal republic" – founded in 1949 – Economy Minister Peter Altmaier warned, predicting it would shrink by a record 6.3 per cent.