WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th April, 2020) US President Donald Trump on Friday refuted claims that he received intelligence about the coronavirus outbreak as far back as last November, calling reports by US media "Fake News".
On Thursday, ABC news cited unnamed sources as saying that the US National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) presented reports to the Trump administration and to lawmakers expressing concern about the outbreak of a coronavirus of unknown origin in China's city of Wuhan, where the COVID-19 was subsequently reported in late December.
"It's ABC Fake News. They knew they were wrong when they went with this Hoax of a story!" Trump tweeted Friday.
ABC's report suggests that Trump was regularly briefed about the coronavirus throughout December and January but only made first mention of the virus in late January.
The Trump administration and other relevant agencies have been target of criticism for allegedly slow-walking the response to the coronavirus pandemic, which critics say is the reason for the US becoming the worst affected country.
As of Friday, there are over 466,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the US with over 16,600 deaths as a result. More than 26,000 people have thus far recovered.
