- Der Spiegel published bombshell claims from its Federal Intelligence Service
- President Xi 'asked WHO to delay global warning about Covid-19 on January 21'
- WHO called the report's shock claims 'unfounded and untrue' in a statement
- Trump has repeatedly accused the WHO of being 'China-centric' and a 'disaster'
- Some 4million people have contracted coronavirus with 279,000 reported dead
Germany's Der Spiegel published the allegations this weekend, citing intelligence from the country's Federal Intelligence Service, known as the 'Bundesnachrichtendienst' (BND).
According to the BND: 'On January 21, China's leader Xi Jinping asked WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to hold back information about a human-to-human transmission and to delay a pandemic warning.
'The BND estimates that China's information policy lost four to six weeks to fight the virus worldwide'.
The WHO released a statement shortly after the publication of the shock claims, calling them 'unfounded and untrue'.
A bombshell report in Der Spiegel claims Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) personally asked World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom (left) to 'delay a global warning' about the threat of COVID-19 in January. The pair are pictured together in Beijing on January 28 of this year. The WHO has denied the allegation
'Dr Tedros and President Xi did not speak on January 21 and they have never spoken by phone. Such inaccurate reports distract and detract from WHO's and the world's efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic,' the statement read.
It continued: 'China confirmed human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus on January 20 [prior to the alleged phone conversation].
'The WHO publicly declared on January 22 that...