WASHINGTON, May 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The coronavirus death toll in the United States climbed by 1,883 in the past 24 hours, a tally by Johns Hopkins University showed Friday, bringing the total number of fatalities to nearly 65,000.
The Baltimore-based university had recorded more than 1.1 million cases in the country as of 8:30 pm Friday (0030 GMT Saturday), with 64,789 deaths, a rise of three percent from a day earlier.
The US has by far the highest death toll of any country in the global pandemic.
Meanwhile, Pres Donald Trump said he has seen evidence the new coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab, an assertion that threatened on Friday to turn a global health emergency into a diplomatic crisis.
The US president’s statement was immediately undermined by intelligence
officials and top diplomat Mike Pompeo, who said: “We don’t know precisely where it began.”
But the claim — already denied by Beijing — could stir tensions even as
the World Health Organization asks to be allowed to take part in a Chinese
investigation into the “animal origins” of the pandemic.
Scientists believe the killer virus jumped from animals to humans, emerging in China late last year, possibly from a market
in Wuhan selling exotic animals for meat.
Asked if he had seen anything to make him think the Wuhan Institute of
Virology was the source of the outbreak, Trump replied: “Yes, I have.” But he refused to give details and Secretary of State Pompeo indicated he had not seen definitive evidence.
“We don’t know if it came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. We don’t
know if it emanated from the wet market or yet some other place. We don’t
know those answers.”
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said analysts would
“continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to
determine” the origin of the outbreak.
In Geneva, a spokesman for the World Health Organization (WHO), said
several investigations into the source of the virus were going on, adding
that the global agency was “not currently involved in the studies in China”.
“WHO would be keen to work with international partners and, at the
invitation of the Chinese government, to participate in investigation around
the animal origins,” Tarik Jasarevic said.
Last month foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said WHO officials “have repeatedly stated that there is no single evidence that the new coronavirus was produced in a laboratory”.
“Many well-known medical experts in the world also believe that the so-
called laboratory leak hypothesis has no scientific basis,” he said.
The coronavirus has infected at least 3.2 million people so far, with
Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin becoming the latest high-profile
figure to test positive as his country’s caseload surged past 100,000. — NNN-AGENCIES
