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The World Health Organization has dismissed as a “false accusation” a media report that withheld information about the new coronavirus after pressure from China.
The UN agency said in a statement Saturday night that a German magazine report of a telephone conversation between WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Chinese President Xi Jinping on January 21 was “unfounded and false. “
The weekly Der Spiegel reported that Xi asked Tedros during the call to withhold information about person-to-person transmission of the virus and to delay the declaration of a pandemic. The magazine quoted Germany’s foreign intelligence agency BND as declining to comment on Sunday.
Der Spiegel also claimed that the BND concluded that up to six weeks of time to combat the outbreak had been lost due to China’s information policy.
The UN agency said Tedros and Xi “have never spoken on the phone,” adding that “such inaccurate reports distract and downplay the efforts of WHO and the world to end the COVID-19 pandemic.”
He said China confirmed human-to-human transmission of the new coronavirus on January 20.
WHO officials released a statement two days later saying there was evidence of person-to-person transmission in Wuhan, but that further investigation was needed. The global body declared COVID-19 a pandemic on February 11.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has been one of the main critics of the handling of the pandemic by the WHO, accusing him of deference to China and stopping payments to the agency.
