In his speech, Xi also accused local officials of not carrying out edicts from the central government, vowing to punish incompetent officials.

“I issued demands during a Politburo Standing Committee meeting on January 7 for work to contain the outbreak. On January 20, I gave special instructions about the work to prevent and control the outbreak and I have said we have to pay high attention to it,” he said.

The document did not say whether the Politburo was aware of human-to-human transmission of the disease at the time but research published by Chinese scientists said such infections occurred as early as December.

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The speech by Xi also indicated his desire to win international understanding and support through propaganda and diplomacy.

“We have to liaise and communicate with other countries and regions, to share information about the outbreak and containment strategies to win international understanding and support,” he said.

In terms of domestic stability, Xi stressed the need to stabilise food and energy supplies to boost public confidence. He also ordered police to increase their presence on the streets.

“[We must] ensure societal control and security by stepping up law enforcement, mobilising public security and armed police in joint efforts,” Xi said.

The authorities should also update the public on their efforts to help boost public confidence, he said.

“[We must] inform the people of what the party and government is doing and what is our next step forward to strengthen the public’s confidence,” he said.

He said the government would encourage companies and scientific institutes to speed up research on drugs and vaccines for the outbreaks and they should share their information with the science sector.

At the same time, Xi stressed that national economic goals set for this year, such as achieving “moderate prosperity”, would remain.

This would be achieved by resuming production, boosting consumption and investment in infrastructure, particularly 5G communications.

“There should not be any thought that we can wait a bit [because of the epidemic],” he said.

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Wu Qiang, a Beijing-based political analyst who specialises in analysing Xi’s speeches, said the president’s address was a “rare and interesting” shift from the past.

“The speech was made at a time when Xi is facing heavy domestic and diplomatic pressure,” Wu said.

“This is unprecedented. It sounds like he is defending and explaining how he has done everything in his capacity to lead epidemic prevention.”

Meanwhile, a panel of experts from the World Health Organisation began to arrive in Beijing on a trip that will take in three provinces.

National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng said the panel’s mission would include inspecting outbreak prevention work in urban and rural areas, and assessing viral analytics work before making recommendations to China.

Speaking publicly for the first time since being sent to Wuhan, NHC deputy director Wang Hesheng said he would make sure that there “would not be another Wuhan” in Hubei province. Nine medical centres with a combined capacity of nearly 7,000 beds had opened in the city and the province was planning to open more to treat patients with mild symptoms.

Various cities near Wuhan have stepped up quarantine. On Saturday, the small centre of Wuxue announced that with the exception of people working to contain the epidemic, anyone seen walking the streets would be sent to a stadium for “study sessions”.

Beijing has also appointed two senior firefighting commanders to the Ministry of Emergency Management’s leading group – Xu Ping, head of the ministry’s Forest Fire Bureau, and Qiong Se, director of its Fire and Rescue Bureau.

Zhou Xuewen and Liu Wei, two of the ministry’s existing leading party members, have been appointed deputy ministers for emergency management.