Countries should avoid a "blame culture" when discussing the spread of viruses, said Michael Ryan, the head of the World Health Organization's (WHO) emergency program, during a media briefing in Geneva on Friday.

Ryan was responding to a question about comments made by a presenter on the U.S. Fox News channel saying that China should apologize for the outbreak of COVID-19.

The WHO official said that diseases could emerge anywhere, and countries, instead of blaming others, should focus on saving lives.