China claimed on Friday that the novel coronavirus outbreak had erupted in various parts of the world. However, it was the only country to have reported and acted first, as per media reports.

Rejecting the claims made by the US on the origination of the virus in China’s Wuhan lab, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, in a media briefing, said: “The coronavirus is a new kind of virus as more and more facts emerge as reports reveal.”

She added: “We all know that the epidemic broke out in various places in the world at the end of last year, while China was the first to report the outbreak, identified the pathogen and shared the genome sequence with the world.”

The statement came after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo alleged that China’s Communist Party had made the coronavirus pandemic worse by covering it up.

Global team

This week, the World Health Organization (WHO) gave Beijing a list of global experts to be part of the international investigation team that will probe the origin of the virus in China. The multilateral organization is awaiting China’s approval to begin the investigation, as per previous reports.

Meanwhile, the deadly virus has infected more than 36 million people and killed more than one million people across the world, as per the John Hopkins Resource Centre dashboard.

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