China has described a lawsuit brought against it by the US state of Missouri as “very absurd”.

Speaking on Wednesday, foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said that the suit, which concerns China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, has “no factual and legal basis at all”.

He defended the country’s response to the outbreak, which has now largely subsided, even in the region where it began.

Missouri’s accusations centre on a delay in reporting the extent of the outbreak in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province in late 2019, reportedly over fears about the political stability of the region.

Medical staff were ordered to keep quiet about the outbreak early on, and Wuhan went several days without reporting cases during an annual provincial government conference.

“This so-called lawsuit is very absurd and has no factual and legal basis at all,” Mr Geng said at a daily briefing. Since the outbreak began, China has proceeded in an “open, transparent, and responsible manner” and the US government should “dismiss such vexatious litigation,” he added.

Missouri’s lawsuit accuses China of an “appalling campaign of deceit, concealment, misfeasance, and inaction” which led to “the enormous loss of life, human suffering, and economic turmoil” caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

“During the critical weeks of the initial outbreak,” it reads, “Chinese authorities deceived the public, suppressed crucial information, arrested whistleblowers, denied human-to-human transmission in the face of mounting evidence, destroyed critical medical research, permitted millions of people to be exposed to the virus, and even hoarded personal protective equipment – thus causing a global pandemic that was unnecessary and preventable.”

Under US federal law, individual states are generally unable to sue entire countries, but there are exceptional circumstances. The state’s case argues that China’s behaviour over coronavirus and its implications stemmed from “commercial” interests, meaning they have the right to sue.

Speaking to Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, Missouri attorney general Eric Schmitt laid the outbreak’s human and economic toll at the Chinese government’s feet.

“What’s become clear in recent weeks is the deception, the misrepresentation, the concealment of the Chinese government of the origins of this vicious virus that’s impacted the entire globe … they were aware of the human-to-human contact and transmission very early on, hid that, punished and concealed the evidence from whistleblowers, and the impact has been devastating,” Mr Schmitt said.

As of Wednesday morning, Missouri has just under 6,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, and has recorded 189 deaths.