China hid virus severity to hoard supplies: US inte

Artist Amanda Newmans mural of senior Wuhan Central Hospital doctor Ai Fen adorns a wall in Melbourne, Australia. Dr Fen was the first to alert the world to the novel Coronavirus in December 2019, for which she was reprimanded by Chinese state authorities

US officials believe China covered up the extent of the COVID-19 outbreak - and how contagious the disease is - to stock up on medical supplies needed to respond to it, intelligence documents show. Chinese leaders "intentionally concealed the severity" of the pandemic from the world in early January, according to a four-page Department of Homeland Security DHS intelligence report dated May 1 and obtained by the AP.

Marked "for official use only," the DHS analysis states that, while downplaying the severity of the virus, China increased imports and decreased exports of medical supplies. It attempted to cover up doing so by "denying there were export restrictions and obfuscating and delaying provision of its trade data," the analysis states.

Hid details from WHO
The report also says China held off informing the World Health Organisation that the COVID-19 "was a contagion" for much of January so it could order medical supplies from abroad " and that its imports of face masks and surgical gowns and gloves increased sharply.

Those conclusions are based on the 95 per cent probability that China-s changes in imports and export behaviour were not within normal range, according to the report. China publicly identified the pathogen as a novel Coronavirus on January 8.

Trump -thinks- we-ll have vaccine by year end

President Donald Trump says he believes a vaccine for COVID-19 will be available by the end of the year. Trump commented Sunday night during a televised town hall. "I think we-ll have a vaccine by the end of the year. We-ll have a vaccine much sooner rather than later," he said. Trump also increased his projection for the total US death toll to 1,00,000 - up by as much as 40,000 from what he had suggested just a few weeks ago. So far, over 67,000 have died in US.

-Remdesivir to be out by next week-

Antiviral drug Remdesivir, approved by the USFDA for emergency use to treat COVID-19 patients, is expected to be available by early next week, the CEO of Gilead Sciences, the pharmaceutical firm manufacturing the medicine has said.

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