US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo charged Thursday that China may have known of the new coronavirus as early as November, renewing accusations that Beijing has not been transparent and again drawing ire from China.
"You'll recall that the first cases of this were known by the Chinese government maybe as early as November, but certainly by mid-December," Pompeo said in an interview.
"They were slow to identify this for anyone in the world, including the World Health Organization," he told conservative radio host Larry O'Connor.
Pompeo said the United States still wanted more information from China including the original sample of the SARS-CoV-2 virus detected in the metropolis of Wuhan.
"This issue of transparency is important not only as a historical matter to understand what happened back in November and December and January, but it's important even today," Pompeo said.
"This is still impacting lots of lives here in the United States and, frankly, around the world."
China hit back on Friday, saying Pompeo's remarks were "totally groundless and entirely for the purpose of blaming others".
Pompeo's comments ran "counter to the general consensus of the global community", foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a daily press briefing, adding that China had "provided timely information to the world" and actively cooperated with others.
China initially closely guarded information of the virus and silenced whistleblowers. The first official acknowledgment of what became a global pandemic came on December 31 when authorities in Wuhan reported mysterious cases of pneumonia.
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