Australia's call for global action comes as it successfully slows the spread of coronavirus, with new infections well below 1% a day. Australia has about 6,600 cases of coronavirus and 76 deaths from the virus.
Around a third of Australia's cases can be traced to cruise ships and one vessel is responsible for about 10% of cases.
The Ruby Princess cruise ship, owned by Carnival Corp , is Australia's largest source of coronavirus infections after authorities granted the ship permission to disembark its 2,700 passengers last month without health checks.
Since then more than 600 people have contracted Covid-19 after being in contact with passengers and 21 people have died after travelling on the Ruby Princess cruise ship.
Australian police are investigating whether the company knowingly let coronavirus patients off the ship.
The Ruby Princess, which has been in Australia since March, is expected to depart on Thursday with just crew. It is not clear where the ship will sail to after leaving Australian territorial waters.
China's foreign ministry said on Thursday that Australia's call for an independent probe into the coronavirus epidemic was political maneuvering and said the country should end its ideological bias.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang also told reporters during a briefing that China has no wildlife wet markets, responding to a question about U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo's comments calling for China to close all wildlife wet markets in the country.
