The novel coronavirus recorded its first human case in China's Wuhan at the end of 2019. Since then, it has spread to 185 countries as has recorded over 2,499,700 positive cases.
According to the COVID-19 live tracker maintained by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, more than 171,700 people have died.
Against this backdrop, many countries have criticised China for not taking adequate measures, and for endangering people's lives in other countries.
US President Donald Trump for example, recently said that there would be consequences if China had been "knowingly responsible" for the novel coronavirus outbreak.
In a recent interaction with reporters he said that it "could have been stopped in China before it started and it wasn't".
"If it was a mistake, a mistake is a mistake. But if they were knowingly responsible, then there should be consequences," he had added.
Late in March, an US-based group had filed a $20 trillion lawsuit against China, reportedly for creation and spread of the novel coronavirus.
More recently, there have also been reports that Germany had sent China a 130-billion-pound invoice that Beijing "owes" Berlin following the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
And while many publications had reported the same, it must be mentioned that the bill in question was an itemised list created by German newspaper Bild. Many newspapers and portals however appear to have erroneously attributed this bill to the German government.
The list includes a Euro 27 billion charge for lost tourism revenue, up to euro 7.2 billion for the German film industry, a million euros an hour for German airline Lufthansa and euro 50 billion for German small businesses.
Bild calculated that this amounts to euro 1,784 (1,550 pounds) per person if Germany's GDP falls by 4.2 per cent, under the title "What China owes us."
Aside from its response to the virus, China has recently faced criticism for PPE kits that have failed to meet quality tests. Peter Navarro, the White House Director of Trade and Manufacturing had also alleged that several countries, including India and Brazil did not having enough PPE because Beijing was hoarding them.
"Not only China is hoarding, but is also selling these at a high rate," the official had alleged in an interview with Fox Business News.
