Global health officials tried to determine the facts of China's raging COVID-19 outbreak and how to prevent a further spread as the government's mouthpiece newspaper on Wednesday rallied citizens for a "final victory" over the virus.

China's axing of its stringent anti-virus controls last month has unleashed COVID-19 on a 1.4 billion population that has little natural immunity having been shielded from the virus since it emerged in its Wuhan city three years ago.

Funeral homes have reported a spike in demand for their services and international health experts predict at least one million deaths in China this year.