US President Donald Trump raises question over China's official coronavirus COVID-19 death count

US President Donald Trump On Wednesday (April 1) raised soiubt over the accuracy of official Chinese figures on its coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak after several lawmakers in the US accused Beijing of hiding numbers.

"How do we know if they are accurate. Their numbers seem to be a little bit on the light side," Trump said at a press conference. The US president, however, asserted that Washington's relationship with China is still good and he is close to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

But the recent war of words between US and China over coronavirus outbreak has strained ties with some Chinese claiming that the US military was to blame for the spread of virus in China.

Citing a US intelligence report, Republicans in Congress accused China of misleading the global community on the number of infections and deaths in Chinese mainland due to coronavirus.

Notably, China has officially confirmed 82,361 cases and 3,316 deaths as of Wednesday, while the US has 206,207 cases and 4,542 deaths so far. 

Calling Beijing's numbers as "garbage propaganda," Republican Senator Ben Sasse said, "The claim that the United States has more coronavirus deaths than China is false. Without commenting on any classified information, this much is painfully obvious: The Chinese Communist Party has lied, is lying, and will continue to lie about coronavirus to protect the regime."

Michael McCaul, top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said China is "not a trustworthy partner" in the fight against coronavirus.

"They lied to the world about the human-to-human transmission of the virus, silenced doctors and journalists who tried to report the truth, and are now apparently hiding the accurate number of people impacted by this disease," McCaul said.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic infected 905,279 people worldwide and increased the death toll to 45,371 till 11.45 pm (IST) on Wednesday even as the head of the United Nations has described this crisis as humanity's worst since World War II.

The US has recorded the highest numbers of cases worldwide at 199,092 including 4,361 deaths. Italy has a total of 110,574 positive cases including 13,155 deaths, the highest fatalities globally. Spain followed Italy with 102,136 cases and 9,053 deaths.