JAKARTA - The United States hopes China can contain the current COVID-19 outbreak, as the number of victims of the virus is of global concern due to China's economic size, State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Monday.
"Villic victims are of concern worldwide given China's GDP size, given China's economic size," Price said at a daily briefing at the State Department.
"Not only good for China to be in a stronger position vis-a-vis of COVID but also good for the whole world," Price said.
He added, whenever a virus spreads, it potentially mutates and poses a threat everywhere.
"We've seen that during many permutations it's different from this virus, and of course another reason why we're so focused on helping countries in the world cope with COVID," Price said.
China reported its first COVID-related deaths in weeks on Monday, amid growing doubts whether an official tally could calculate the total number of disease victims spreading in cities, after the government relaxed strict anti-virus controls.
The two deaths on Monday were the first to be reported by the National Health Commission (NHC) since December 3, days before Beijing announced the lifting of restrictions, most of which have contained the virus for three years, but sparked widespread protests last month.
The low death toll since restrictions were lifted on December 7 is inconsistent with the experiences of other countries following similar measures.
Officially, China only suffered 5,237 COVID-related deaths during the pandemic, including the last two deaths, while its population reached 1.4 billion.
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