HARARE -- The United States should adopt an open and scientific attitude towards COVID-19 origins tracing, instead of politicizing the pandemic and blaming China for the virus, Zimbabwe's state media The Herald said on Monday.

"Political manipulation should consequently never be supported as it goes against science and justice. China's stance on COVID-19 is transparent and consistent -- it is an issue of science. Sideshows such as the US intelligence community report are not helpful and should therefore be dismissed as inconsequential," it said in an opinion article.

Last week, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a so-called summary of the intelligence community assessment report on COVID-19's origins, which does not rule out either natural exposure or a laboratory accident as the origin of the virus.

The report falsely claims that China "continues to hinder the global investigation, resist sharing information and blame other countries."

A White House statement issued on the same day also purported that "China tries to hold back international investigations and rejects calls for transparency," and urged "like-minded partners to exert pressure on China."

"Such unfounded claims should be dismissed with the strongest condemnation," The Herald said, noting that since the emergence of the virus, China has taken a transparent, professional, scientific and serious approach towards origin-tracing.

The United States has deviated from the internationally accepted scientific inquiry and turned to what has clearly become ideological warfare with China, it said.

"We have observed from the very beginning that the US has been making vain efforts to politicize the pandemic and use origins tracing as a weapon targeted at none, but China," it noted.

"What is now clear is they have turned a blind eye to the truth and findings by scientists to advance selfish and political agendas," it said.

China, it noted, has taken the lead in working with the World Health Organization (WHO) on global COVID-19 origins tracing "by inviting WHO experts to China not once, but twice to carry out investigations on the origins of the virus."

In fact, one of the biggest questions is why the United States is avoiding tracing the origins of the virus in its own backyard, it noted.

"Responsibility and transparency should be standards followed by all," it added.