The World Health Organisation (WHO) said an independent review of the global coronavirus response would begin as soon as possible and it received backing and a hefty pledge of funds from China, in the spotlight as the origin of the pandemic, according to Reuters.

But the WHO's chief critic, the US administration of President Donald Trump, decried an “apparent attempt to conceal this outbreak by at least one member state”.

Health secretary Alex Azar did not mention China by name, but made clear Washington considered the WHO jointly responsible.

“We must be frank about one of the primary reasons this outbreak spun out of control,” he said. “There was a failure by this organisation to obtain the information that the world needed, and that failure cost many lives.”