The United States hopes that China can address the current COVID-19 outbreak as the toll of the virus is a global concern due to the size of the Chinese economy, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said, writes Reuters.

“The toll of the virus is of concern to the rest of the world given the size of China’s GDP, given the size of China’s economy. It’s not only good for China to be in a stronger position vis-a-vis COVID but it’s good for the rest of the world as well”, - said Price.

He added that anytime the virus is spreading it has the potential to mutate and pose a threat everywhere: “We’ve seen that over the course of many different permutations of this virus and certainly another reason why we are so focused on helping countries around the world address COVID”.

China reported its first COVID-related deaths in weeks on Monday amid rising doubts over whether the official count was capturing the full toll of a disease that is ripping through cities after the government relaxed strict anti-virus controls.