Democrats have called on Republicans to apologise for language about the coronavirus that they claim is “bigoted”, including labelling the disease as “Chinese”.

The call for repentance came in response to a message from congressman Kevin McCarthy, in which he shared the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s page about the outbreak, and called it the “Chinese coronavirus”.

Among others, the message from the top Republican in the House was quickly condemned by leaders with the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and House Democrats.

“Your words are so hurtful. We may be of different parties but people depend on all of us to be compassionate & effective leaders,” wrote congresswoman Grace Meng, of New York, on Twitter. “Asian Americans — from kids to seniors are getting attacked bc of this exact type of rhetoric. Do better — please — I implore you. Lives are at stake.”

House speaker Nancy Pelosi also condemned the label on Twitter, saying that blaming the people of China for the disease put people in peril.

“Bigoted statements which spread misinformation and blame Asians and the Asian American community for #coronavirus makes us all less safe,” she wrote. “@GOPLeader must delete this tweet and apologise immediately.”

In a statement, the chair of the Congressional Asian Caucus slammed Mr McCarthy and Republican congressman Paul Gosar for statements like those as well.

“Insisting on identifying the virus by region, as Leader McCarthy and Rep Gosar have done, only creates fear and hostility,” Judy Chu, of California, wrote.

Mr Gosar, for his part, put himself into self-quarantine earlier this week, and claimed he had come in contact with someone who was diagnosed with the “Wuhan Virus”, referring to the area in China from which the virus has spread.

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In response to the criticism, Mr McCarthy accused Democrats of playing politics with the virus outbreak.

“Democrats are trying to score political points by calling Republicans racist,” he said.