China must answer 'hard questions' about virus outbreak – UK

Britain and its allies will ask tough questions of China over the coronavirus outbreak, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Thursday, adding "we can't have business as usual after this crisis".

"We'll have to ask the hard questions about how it came about and how it couldn't have been stopped earlier," Raab said at a Downing Street press conference when asked about future relations with Beijing.

The virus emerged in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019. Raab said the world will need to find out what happened in China in the early days of the pandemic.

Raab is filling in for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is convalescing after a weeklong hospital stay to be treated for Covid-19. The foreign secretary said there will have to be a “deep dive” review of the crisis, including how the outbreak came about.

He said the review of all aspects of the pandemic, including its origins, will have to be based on the science and conducted in a “balanced way,” and added that there “is no doubt we can’t have business as usual after this crisis.”

Raab did credit cooperation from Beijing in relation to bringing home stranded Britons in Wuhan and in supplying equipment to deal with the pandemic.

Esper accuses China of 'misleading' world on virus

US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper accused China of "misleading" the world on the origins of the novel coronavirus, and being opaque in its messaging.

Asked during a televised interview if it is possible the novel coronavirus came from a Chinese laboratory, Esper said "the results are inconclusive."

"This is something we have been watching now for some time," he said on the Today program. 

"We do know one thing, if the Chinese government, the party, had been more transparent earlier, it would have helped us in terms of staying ahead of this virus, being able to understand its DNA, develop therapeutics and vaccines much quicker."

Esper's comments come after The Washington Post and Fox News reported there were growing suspicions the virus in fact slipped out of a sensitive laboratory in Wuhan that studied bats, blamed for the SARS coron avirus outbreak in 2003.

China has said its scientists believe the virus was first transmitted to humans at a meat market in Wuhan that butchered exotic animals.
Neither outlet suggested the virus was spread deliberately.

Trump, asked about the laboratory theory at a news conference on Wednesday, said that "more and more, we're hearing the story" and that the United States was "doing a very thorough investigation."

UK procures faulty Covid-19 tests from China

After UK officials reached a deal with two Chinese companies procuring two million home testing kits for at least $20 million they were found to be faulty, the New York Times reported on Thursday. 

A laboratory at Oxford University found the tests to be insufficiently accurate, the New York Times said, adding that pressure due to a delay in London's response to the pandemic led to the gamble by officials. 

With limited supplies for tests due to overwhelming global demand, health officials pounced on the deal only to admit last week that the tests did not work. 

The government has promised 100,000 tests a day by the end of the month, but the leader of the opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer noted it was only at about 15,000 a day now.