China defended its handling of the coronavirus pandemic Tuesday but said it would "strive to do better" after independent experts criticised the speed of its response to a virus that has now killed more than two million people worldwide.

Beijing has faced international criticism for an alleged lack of transparency after the virus emerged in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019 and for stifling whistleblowers who tried to raise the alarm.

The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response -- which also criticised the World Health Organization over its response -- said Monday that its evaluation of the start of the crisis in China "suggests that there was potential for early signs to have been acted on more rapidly".

The panel, established by the WHO to independently study global responses to the virus, said it was clear that "public health measures could have been applied more forcefully by local and national health authorities in China in January".

But Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Tuesday said Beijing had imposed early measures, including the announcement of a hard lockdown on Wuhan weeks after the virus was detected, that had "reduced infections and deaths."

China largely brought the virus under control in the months after it first surfaced, but the pandemic beyond its borders has killed millions and wreaked economic havoc.

Hua on Tuesday said at a regular press briefing that while "we should of course strive to do better," that did not mean China's response had been inadequate.

"As the first country to sound the alarm against the pandemic, we took prompt and decisive measures even though we had incomplete information at the time," Hua said.

The experts' report criticised the WHO for dragging its feet at the start of the crisis, pointing out that the UN health agency did not convene its emergency committee until January 22, 2020.

China has made attempts to shift the pandemic narrative from the early chaos in Wuhan to the country's success in stopping the virus' spread.

Beijing has also cast doubts on whether Covid-19 originated in Wuhan while silencing critics, including citizen journalist Zhang Zhan who was jailed for four years for reporting on conditions inside Wuhan at the height of the outbreak.

Chinese city rushes to build massive Covid-19 quarantine centre
Beijing (AFP) Jan 19, 2021 - Thousands of prefabricated rooms fill a vast field on the outskirts of China's Shijiazhuang city as construction crews work around the clock to erect a large quarantine facility to curb the city's growing Covid-19 outbreak.

China has largely brought the virus under control even as the rest of the world struggles with mounting deaths and overburdened hospitals.

But a spate of small, localised outbreaks has prompted Chinese officials to order mass testing, strict lockdowns and to prepare to move full villages into the quarantine facility to stamp out a resurgence.

The scenes outside Shijiazhuang, northern China, are reminiscent of Beijing's efforts early last year to build makeshift field hospitals in Wuhan -- the central city where Covid-19 cases first emerged -- within days.

The quarantine buildings in Shijiazhuang are equipped with bathrooms, Wi-fi and air conditioning and will house close contacts of confirmed virus patients once completed in the next few days.

State broadcaster CCTV showed workers in high-visibility vests and hard hats assembling the cabin-like structures in the dark, while flags bearing the names of construction teams and Communist Party units fluttered from the completed buildings.

The facility is expected to have enough rooms to hold more than 4,000 people once it is completed, CCTV said Tuesday.

Work began on January 13 as northern Chinese cities placed millions under lockdown over hundreds of new infections in recent weeks.

Over 20,000 residents of villages in the surrounding Hebei province have been sent into quarantine in centralised facilities, state media reported last week.

Meanwhile, millions of local residents have been tested for the virus multiple times.

China is on high alert for a potential wave of cases triggered by the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, which is expected to "pose massive challenges" to virus prevention, senior national health official Wang Bin said last week.

Millions of city dwellers are set to travel to their home towns for celebrations.

Virus cases have surged around the world in recent weeks, with the global death toll now past two million.

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