Stop calling it 'China coronavirus': Beijing

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) – China on Friday slammed the U.S. for using the term “Chinese coronavirus” to describe the global outbreak, alleging that the virus may have initially been transferred to Wuhan from Washington.

The allegations came after the director of the U.S.’ Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Robert Redfield, testified before the U.S. Congress on measures to stem the spread of the virus in America.

“CDC was caught on the spot. When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lijian Zhao said in a series of tweets on Friday, linking to a conspiracy theory website as proof.

"US owe us an explanation!” he added.

The origin of the novel coronavirus is widely believed to be Wuhan, the capital of China’s Hubei province, where the first cases came to light last December.

“We hope certain US officials could focus on domestic response & international cooperation instead of trying to shift the blame to China by denigrating Chinese efforts to fight the epidemic,” Lijian said.

The virus’ global death toll is now nearly 5,000, with more than 132,500 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which has declared the outbreak a pandemic.