TheCable

The US intelligence agencies reportedly learnt of the coronavirus weeks before China informed the World Health Organisation (WHO) of the disease outbreak.

The Times of Israel quoted Channel 12, an Israeli TV station, as saying the US was aware of the infection in the second week of November after which it drew up a classified document on the issue.

The Trump administration, however, “did not deem it of interest”, the report said, but the Americans decided to update two allies with the classified document: NATO and Israel.

Israel discussed the intelligence about the novel coronavirus and reached its decision makers where “nothing was done”, the report said.

China first reported the novel coronavirus, which had first manifested as cases of pneumonia in Wuhan to the WHO on December 31, 2019.

However, there have been reports the Asian country did not act fast on the disease, a claim it has denied.

Also, the US has repeatedly accused China of concealing information about the outbreak.

As at Friday, the coronavirus had infected over 2.2 million people worldwide while more than 150,000 have died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.