Donald Trump has claimed China could have stopped the coronavirus before it swept the globe in his first press conference since the 'disinfectant storm'.
The US president said his administration was conducting "serious investigations" into what happened when the outbreak first occurred in Wuhan at the end of last year.
"We are not happy with China," he continued. "We believe it could have been stopped at the source.
"It could have been stopped quickly and it wouldn't have spread all over the world."
Responding to a question about reports in Germany that a lawsuit worth billions could be lodged against China, Trump said: "We have ways of doing things a lot easier than that.
"Germany's looking at things, and we're looking at things, and we're talking about a lot more money than Germany's talking about.
"We haven't determined the final amount yet. It's very substantial.
"If you look at the world, I mean, this is worldwide damage. This is damage to the U.S., but this is damage to the world."
The president was appearing before US journalists for the first time since storming out of the White House briefing room over questions about his suggestion of injecting cleaning products and using intense light to treat coronavirus.
Speaking at a conference last week, Trump, who was already facing ongoing criticism for his handling of the pandemic, raised the bizarre ideas as he questioned William Bryan, acting head of the US Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate.
A reporter asked the president on Monday about the state of Maryland reporting more emergency calls regarding ingestion of disinfectants.
"I can't imagine why," Trump said. "I can't imagine that."
The president has since claimed his comments were made sarcastically and were aimed at the journalists in last week's briefing rather than at Bryan.
The president said he did not take any responsibility in relation to the Maryland governor's office issuing an alert after receiving over 100 calls about people ingesting disinfectant.
The president has been continually critical of China as the battle against covid-19 has dragged on and has often emphasised his order to close the US borders to China in an attempt to halt the outbreak.
Some health experts have said the move afforded the White House time to prepare for the fight ahead, but the Trump administration has been accused of wasting the opportunity.
"Nobody except one country can be held accountable for what happened," Trump said on Monday.
"Nobody's blaming anybody here. We're looking at a group of people that should've stopped it at the source."
He added that the US will always remember those who were "sacrificed for a reason of incompetence or something else other than incompetence".
He said China "could've protected the whole world - not just us - the whole world".
Trump went on to say American schools will soon be welcoming students back, as US states begin to lift restrictions put in place in the hopes of slowing the pandemic.
This is despite there only being a few weeks left of classes in most schools' terms.
"I think you'll see a lot of schools open up, even if it's for a very short time," Trump said, adding "young people seem to do very well" in terms of "what this vicious virus goes after".
Trump was asked if he had considered postponing the November presidential election in which he hopes to be reinstated for a second and final term.
"I never even thought of changing the date of the election," he said. "Why would I do that? November 3rd. That's a good number."
Trump called the prospect of a delay "made up propaganda" and suggested presumptive Democratic rival Joe Biden was likely unaware his campaign had suggested it.
Former Vice-President Biden, however, said at a virtual fundraiser last week that he thought president would "try to kick back the election somehow".
Trump has frequently insulted his opponent by questioning Biden's mental fortitude for leading the country.
"I look forward to that election," Trump added.
In the final question of the evening, a reporter asked: "If an American president loses more Americans over the course of six weeks than died during the entirety of the Vietnam war, does he deserve to be reelected?"
Trump refused to rise to the question and instead attempted to put a positive spin on the death toll.
"So, yeah, we've lost a lot of people but if you look at what original projections were, 2.2 million, we're probably heading to 60,000 - 70,000," he said.
"It's far too many - one person is too many for this. I think we've made a lot of really good decisions," he added. "The big decision was closing the border, doing the ban on people coming in from China."
He also emphasised the "unbelievable" job his administration did with ventilators.
"I think we've done a great job. And I will say this - one person is too many."
Earlier in the briefing, Trump had said he knows how North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un is but can't talk about it, adding: "I hope he's fine."
Speculation erupted about Kim's health after he missed an annual birthday celebration for his late grandfather - Kim Il-sung, the country's founder - on April 15.
Since then there have been multiple unverified reports that Kim is severely ill or dead.
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