US President Donald Trump was warned about the risk of coronavirus in January, The New York Times reports citing a leaked memo from a presidential adviser.
The COVID-19 death toll has surpassed 11,000 in the US and confirmed cases have topped 368,000.
Seen by the NYT, the memo to Trump from trade adviser Peter Navarro said COVID-19 could imperil "the lives of millions of Americans".
"The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenceless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on US soil," Navarro said in the memo.
He said there was an "elevated risk" to US citizens, the NYT reports, given there is still such little protection available.
But Trump has said it was the World Health Organisation (WHO) which offered bad advice during the COVID-19 outbreak and he's also attacked the US health department.
He said on Twitter the WHO "really blew it" adding it was "very China-centric".
"Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on.
"Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?"
On Tuesday (local time), Trump accused the US health department's inspector general of having produced a "fake dossier" on American hospitals suffering shortages of personal protective equipment on the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak.
Reuters / Newshub.
