The president said the country did not take drastic measures to fight car crashes and flu deaths similar to those it is taking for the coronavirus. He said Americans could continue practicing social-distancing measures, which health experts say are crucial to prevent infection, while also going back to work.

“We lose thousands and thousands of people a year to the flu. We don’t turn the country off,” Trump said. “You can destroy a country this way by closing it down.”

Larry Klayman, his advocacy group Freedom Watch and Buzz Photos, a Texas company, filed the lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleging that the novel coronavirus was “designed by China to be a biological weapon of war”, and that whether or not the country intended to release it, China violated “US law, international laws, treaties, and norms.”

WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said in Geneva there had been a “very large acceleration” in coronavirus infections in the United States which had the potential of becoming the new epicentre.

With the International Monetary Fund predicting a global recession, the world’s 20 largest economies agreed on Monday to develop an “action plan”, but without specifics.