US President Donald Trump on Friday said that China is doing a “very professional job” in combating the coronavirus epidemic.

President Trump said that he discussed the crisis with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in a “very good” phone call late on Thursday.

“We talked about, mostly about the coronavirus. They’re working really hard and I think they’re doing a very professional job,”  Trump added.

The US president said the United States and China were “working together” on the issue. “I think that China will do a very good job.”

On Saturday, the death toll due to the novel coronavirus outbreak in China has climbed to 722, while the number of confirmed cases also rose to 34,546.

Friday’s death of a 34-year-old Wuhan doctor who was punished for raising the alarm about the virus in December sparked an outpouring of grief and anger over the government’s handling of the crisis.

The virus has spread to two dozen countries, prompting several governments to ban arrivals from China and urge their citizens to avoid travelling to the country. Some have recommended their citizens leave China.

Last week, the US declared a public health emergency and temporarily banning the entry of foreign nationals who had travelled to China over the past two weeks to contain the spread of a deadly new virus.

President Donald Trump created a coronavirus task force to lead his administration’s response to the deadly virus which has killed 170 people and infected 7,736 others in China, and spread to 20 countries, including India.

In China, thousands of factory workers on Lunar New Year holidays may struggle to get back to work next week due to travel restrictions. Major firms such as Alphabet Inc’s Google and Sweden’s IKEA have closed China operations.

Four Chinese provinces, including Shandong and Heilongjiang in the industrial rust-belt region, have asked companies not to start work before February 10.

The Coronavirus has caused alarm because of its similarity to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.

The Coronavirus is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses ranging from the common cold to acute respiratory syndromes, but the virus in China is a novel strain and not seen before.