WASHINGTON, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The United States should not externalize the blame on China for its own failings in coping with COVID-19 which has claimed over 10,000 American lives by Monday, said an expert.

"China's initial response to COVID-19 cannot be blamed for the high death toll in the U.S. when the equivalent numbers in East Asia are so much lower," Sourabh Gupta, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for China-America Studies, told Xinhua on Monday.

Gupta said it is worth noting in this regard that just as the first imported case of COVID-19 was recorded in the United States on Jan. 22, the first imported cases in South Korea were recorded on Jan. 20 and Singapore on Jan. 23.

Yet two and a half months later, South Korea has less than 200 deaths and Singapore's death toll is in the single digit, while the U.S. death toll meantime hit 10,000 and counting, he said.

"U.S. politicians and opinion-makers now are externalizing the blame on China. The blame at the U.S. end fundamentally resides on the U.S.' shoulder, and because of its inability to fully come to terms with its own extreme shortcomings," said Gupta.

The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 350,000 with 10,389 deaths as of 3:30 p.m. local time Monday (1930 GMT), according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.