WHO urges countries to investigate early cases of COVID-19

GENEVA – The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that a report that COVID-19 had emerged in France in December earlier than previously thought was not “surprising”, and urged countries to investigate any other suspected cases. early.

The disease later identified as COVID-19 was first reported by Chinese authorities to the WHO on December 31 and was not believed to have spread to Europe until January.

“This gives a whole new picture of everything,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said at a UN briefing in Geneva, referring to the French reports.

“The findings help better understand the possible circulation of the COVID-19 virus,” he added, saying that other possible past cases could emerge after re-testing the samples.

A French hospital that re-analyzed old samples from pneumonia patients found that it had treated a man who had COVID-19 on December 27, almost a month before the French government confirmed his first cases.

Lindmeier encouraged other countries to check records of cases of pneumonia of unspecified origin in late 2019, saying this would give the world a “new and clearer picture” of the outbreak.

When asked about the origins of the virus in China, Lindmeier emphasized that it was “really, really important” to explore this.

United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo alleges that his country has “evidence” that the new coronavirus emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, although scientists have informed the WHO that it is of animal origin.

“That may need more missions or a mission (to China), so we are looking forward to this,” Lindmeier said.

WHO chief emergency expert Dr. Mike Ryan said Monday that the agency’s chief had raised the question of the virus’s origins “at the highest level” during a WHO mission to China in January.