The United Nations human rights chief urged the international community on Thursday to fight prejudice against people of ethnic Asian origin, sparked by the COVID-19 outbreak.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said the coronavirus epidemic has set off a "disturbing wave of prejudice against people of Chinese and East Asian ethnicity."

During a session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Bachelet called on member nations to "do their utmost to combat this and other forms of discrimination."

She extended her "deepest respects" to medical teams around the world tackling the virus and underscored the need for concerted international efforts.

Emphasizing that quarantines should be "proportionate to the risk, time-bound and safe," she also called for the rights of those under quarantine to be protected.