World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday insisted the UN agency had not hidden from the United States any information it had about the coronavirus pandemic.

He said the presence of embedded US government secondees working at the WHO headquarters in Geneva "means there is nothing hidden from the US, from day one", adding: "There is no secret in WHO."

The agency further said it had been warning from the very start about the dangers of the novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 1,64,000 people globally.

"We have been warning from day one that this is a devil that everyone should fight," Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing in Geneva, after facing scathing criticism from Washington which has accused the agency of initially downplaying the pandemic.