The WHO denies any complacency towards China.
Geneva, Switzerland:
The World Health Organization updated its report on the early stages of the COVID crisis to say that it was alerted by its own office in China, and not by China itself, to the first cases of pneumonia in Wuhan.
The UN health agency has been accused by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, of not providing the necessary information to stop the pandemic and of being complacent with Beijing, charges that he denies.
On April 9, WHO released an initial timeline for its communications, in part in response to criticism of its prompt response to the outbreak that has now claimed more than 521,000 lives worldwide.
In that timeline, the WHO had only said that the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission in Hubei Province had reported cases of pneumonia on December 31. However, the UN health agency did not specify who had notified it.
WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference on April 20 that the first report came from China, without specifying whether the report had been sent by Chinese authorities or from another source.
But a new timeline, released this week by the Geneva-based institution, offers a more detailed version of the events.
It indicates that it was the WHO office in China that on December 31 notified its regional contact point of a case of “viral pneumonia” after finding a statement to the media on a website of the Wuhan Health Commission about the topic.
The same day, the WHO epidemic information service collected another news report broadcast by the United States-based international epidemiological surveillance network ProMed on the same group of cases of pneumonia from unknown causes in Wuhan.
After which, the WHO twice requested information from the Chinese authorities on 1 and 2 January, which they provided on 3 January.
WHO Director of Emergencies Michael Ryan said at a news conference on Friday that countries have 24-48 hours to officially verify an event and provide the agency with additional information on the nature or cause of an event.
Ryan added that Chinese authorities immediately contacted WHO as soon as the agency asked to verify the report.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced that his country, the main financial contributor to the WHO, will cut its bridges with the institution, which it accuses of being too close to China and of having mishandled the pandemic.
The WHO denies any complacency towards China.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated channel.)
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