President Biden warned African leaders Wednesday that there “surely will be” another global pandemic as he announced millions of dollars in US aid to the continent, Ednews reports citing New York Post.

“Even as we work to end COVID-19, we continue building stronger health systems and institutions and accelerating efforts to achieve universal health coverage to make sure we’re better prepared to tackle the health challenges including the next pandemic — and there surely will be one,” the president said during remarks kicking off the US-Africa Business Forum in Washington.

The White House has given mixed signals on the state of the COVID outbreak, with Biden telling “60 Minutes” in September the pandemic was “over” — while citing it to push a controversial writeoff of federally backed student loans.

Biden didn’t specifically mention “China” to his assembled guests, despite the rare gathering convening as the US seeks to counter growing Chinese influence in Africa.

China also happens to be where COVID-19 emerged in late 2019. US spy agencies assessed last year the virus may have leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was conducting risky research on coronaviruses using US grant funding.