China said it hopes the assistance the US announced it would provide to help tackle the novel coronavirus outbreak will take place as soon as possible.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying made the remark on Tuesday, after Reuters quoted US President Donald Trump as saying the US officials had offered China "tremendous help" in dealing with the epidemic.

"We can't have thousands of people coming in who may have this problem - the coronavirus," Trump was quoted as saying.

China has noticed that the US has expressed several times its willingness to provide assistance, and hopes the assistance said will be extended as soon as possible, Hua said.

China is fully confident in its capacity to win the fight against the virus, Hua said.

The decisive and effective measures China has taken are gradually taking effect, and the fatality rate of the disease in the Chinese mainland is 2.1 percent, "much lower than that of Ebola, SARS and MERS", Hua said, adding that the recovery rate keeps increasing.

The US should view China's efforts objectively, fairly and calmly without overreaction, and respect and coordinate with such efforts, she said.