President Donald Trump said that the U.S. doesn’t know whether the Chinese government has underreported the number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the country.

“I’m not an accountant from China”, - Trump said when asked at a White House press briefing whether China’s numbers are accurate.

Still, Trump said that Beijing’s tally appeared “to be a little bit on the light side, and I’m being nice when I say that, relative to what we witnessed and what was reported”.

The President’s remarks came hours after a news report said the president received a secret intelligence brief concluding that China deliberately underreported the extent of its COVID-19 outbreak.

But Trump said at the briefing that “we have not received” any intelligence reports showing that China underreported its coronavirus numbers.

The President has previously cast doubt on China’s numbers.