Washington, May 24 (PTI) The deadly coronavirus was unleashed by China to the rest of the world and there has been a massive cover up by Beijing, US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien said on Sunday.

President Donald Trump and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have repeatedly said they suspect the novel coronavirus that was first detected in Wuhan was somehow released from a laboratory in China.

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"This was a virus that was unleashed by China. There was a coverup that someday they're going to do an HBO show like they did with Chernobyl on this virus," O'Brien told 'Face the Nation' Sunday talk show of the CBS News.

When asked whether he was accusing the Chinese government as a whole or local officials of a coverup, O'Brien said, "We don't know, because they kicked out all reporters and they wouldn't let [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] investigators come in and they're still stonewalling investigators.”

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“It doesn't matter if it was local officials or the Chinese Communist Party, it was a coverup and we'll get to the bottom of it eventually,” he added.

Responding to another question, O'Brien said that the US is going to develop a vaccine first.

"But there's a chance, and it's been reported, that the Chinese have been engaged in espionage to try to find the research and the technologies that we're working on both for a vaccine and a therapy.

"They've got a many-year history of stealing American intellectual property and knocking off American technology and I wouldn't be surprised if they did that with the vaccines,” O'Brien said.

The overall number of global coronavirus cases has increased to over 5.3 million, while the death toll surged past 342,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in the US is nearing 100,000.

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