The World Health Organization on Friday, updated its ‘events as they happen’, the chronology of COVID-19, stating that the organization received the information about the first cases of pneumonia from its regional office. “At the close of 2019, the WHO China country office was informed of a pneumonia of unknown cause, detected in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province, China” said the update.
According to the initial timeline published by the UN health agency, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission has reported cases of pneumonia to it, on December 31. However, it was not clear as to who told them about it.
The chief of the organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on April 20 stated that “The report first came from China- that’s fact number one- from Wuhan itself”. However, he did not specify there was no clarification with regards to the exact source which reported the cases.
But, as per the new timeline published by the UN health organization this week, the first report of the ‘viral pneumonia’ was received from the WHO office in China. The health body asked China on January 1 and 2, to give it a report on the current situation in the country and the administration responded on January 3. After which, on January 4, the organization publicly declared the cases of viral pneumonia as reported by China.
#China has reported to WHO a cluster of #pneumonia cases —with no deaths— in Wuhan, Hubei Province 🇨🇳 . Investigations are underway to identify the cause of this illness.
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) January 4, 2020
Micheal Ryan, the emergencies director of the organization, stated on Friday that countries have 24-48 hours to verify an event and notify WHO, while providing sufficient information about the event.
“Chinese authorities immediately contacted WHO as soon as the country was asked for verification of the report”, added Ryan.
WHO has been largely criticized by it’s largest funding nation, the United States, for hiding information about the novel Coronavirus and for “complacency” with China. The organization has denied all charges and has assured that it has maintained complete transparency of information since the onset of the signs of this virus.
The United States also threatened to cut ties with the health organization and cease its funding due to the poorly managing the health emergency and “being too close to China”.
