'US, China working closely against coronavirus outbreak', says Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump again claimed that his administration is working closely with the Chinese government to help fight the deadly coronavirus outbreak. Speaking at his third State of the Union Adress, Trump said that protecting Americans’ health also means fighting infectious diseases and his administration is taking all necessary steps to safeguard US citizens from the threat coronavirus.

“We are coordinating with the Chinese government and working closely together on the coronavirus outbreak in China,” said Trump during the address.

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Similar claims dismissed by China

Trump had made similar claims in the past which was aggressively dismissed by China and the latter also blamed the United States for creating unnecessary panic. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) compared the number of countries affected by coronavirus against other major viruses. The ministry tweeted data to show that 20 countries reported the cases of coronavirus while 214 countries had reported the cases of H1N1 virus killing around 3 lakh people.

The ministry said that H1N1 was started in the US and they made little effort to contain the spread of the disease. It said that thought the infection killed 2,84,500 people worldwide, the western media never mentioned that H1N1 is an American Pandemic virus.

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In a series of tweets, the MFA spokesperson said that they understand reasonable quarantine measures following the advice of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and International Health Regulations (IHR) based on science and facts but oppose excessive measures that “unnecessarily interfere” with international travel.

Following the announcement of the global health emergency by the WHO, the US Department of State had ordered the departure of all family members under age 21 of government officials in China. The United States raised the travel alert to level 4 advising all its citizens to not travel to China.

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