US coronavirus doctor Deborah Birx was absent from the daily briefing on Friday after the fallout from Donald Trump's bizarre comments that disinfectant could be injected as a potential cure.

On Thursday, Birx appeared unsure how to take Trump's suggestion as he turned to look at her from the podium during the White House briefing

The US doctor explained away Trump's remarks in an interview with Fox News by saying: "When he gets new information, he likes to talk that through out loud.

“And so, that's the dialogue he was having. I think he just saw the information at the time, immediately before the press conference, and he was still digesting the information.”

And Trump himself came out in defence of his own comments by saying: “I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen.”

On Thursday, Trump, without a visible hint of sarcasm, had said: "I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute.  And is there a way we can do something like that…by injection inside or almost a cleaning.

“Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. So, that, you're going to have to use medical doctors. But it sounds — it sounds interesting to me.”

The White House has also corrected the official transcript of the news conference to ensure it did not appear as if Birx was agreeing with Trump's idea around the treatment of the virus.

Following Trump's comments, leading disinfectant producer Reckitt Benckiser, which owns brands including Lysol, Dettol, Vanish and Cillit Bang, said its products should not be administered ‘through injection, ingestion or any other route’.