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Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday China acted in an open and transparent manner on the COVID-19 outbreak and that it had taken concrete efforts that helped save tens of millions of lives around the world during the pandemic, Reuters reported.

Xi, speaking at a ceremony honouring role models during the country's fight against the disease, said China is the first major economy to return to growth during the pandemic - a fact he said demonstrates the country's strong abilities and vitality.

Beijing faced criticism at home and overseas in the early days of the outbreak, with some describing COVID-19 as “China’s Chernobyl” - referring to the 1986 nuclear accident that destroyed confidence in the Soviet Union’s ability to govern.

Local authorities in Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus was first identified, were accused of a cover-up that delayed the country’s emergency response by at least two weeks.

But as infections spread throughout the world while slowing domestically, Beijing grew more assertive, resisting global investigations into the origins of the outbreak and saying its swift actions helped buy time for other countries to prepare.