U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded local government officials in the city of Wuhan and Hubei Province in China hid information from the Beijing government in regard on the coronavirus, likely for fear of reprisal, allowing the virus to spread unabated early in the outbreak, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

President Trump has accused the Chinese Communist Party of trying to cover up the coronavirus outbreak, which allowed the situation to become a global pandemic. To date, there are more than 22.2 million people who have tested positive for the virus and more than 782,000 people that have died from COVID-19 globally, Johns Hopkins Universitytracking data show.

Beijing has maintained it acted swiftly to contain the virus and warn the world, ousting several local party officials it said were to blame.

The U.S. government compiled a report that details the mistakes central China officials made in January when the coronavirus first emerged in Wuhan, such as keeping information about the virus from the Beijing government for weeks, U.S. officials told the Times.

The report, which was commissioned after the Department of Homeland Security concluded the Chinese withheld information on the severity of the virus so medical supplies could be hoarded, says officials in Wuhan and Hubei Province hid information from China’s central leadership, which the Times said was consistent with expert assessments of the country’s system of government, which often retaliates against local officials.

The report, which first came out in June and provided information from the CIA and other intelligence agencies, supports claims that Communist Party officials withheld information from the world about the coronavirus, U.S. officials told the Times.

Trump has consistently said there were “deceptions and cover-up” that drove the pandemic. In a speech July 4, Trump said: “China’s secrecy, deceptions, and cover-up allowed it to spread all over the world — 189 countries — and China must be held fully accountable.”

The two nations have increasingly tussled over a plethora of issues, including China's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and its efforts to quash a democracy movement in Hong Kong
The two nations have increasingly tussled over a plethora of issues, including China's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and its efforts to quash a democracy movement in Hong Kong POOL / JASON LEE