China either incompetent in preventing coronavirus spread or did it for a reason: US President Donald Trump

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump, who has come under fierce criticism for his handling of the coronavirus crisis in the US, has alleged that the Chinese government was either incompetent in preventing the deadly virus from spreading globally or did it for a reason.

More than 68,000 Americans have died of coronavirus in the last three months and over 1.1 million have tested positive. America accounts for the largest number of cases of infections and fatalities in the world. Globally 247,000 people have died and 3.5 million have tested positive so far.

“It (coronavirus) is a terrible thing, a terrible thing that happened to our country. It came from China. It should have been stopped. It could have been stopped on the spot,” Trump said during a town hall organised by the Fox News on Sunday.

“They chose not to do it or something happened. Either there was incompetence or they didn’t do it for some reason. And we’re going to have to find out what that reason was,” he said.

Trump said that had he taken no measures, more than two million Americans would have died. Now the fatalities could be between 75,000 and 100,000. “That’s a horrible thing. We shouldn’t lose one person out of this. This should have been stopped in China. It should have been stopped,” he