WHO Says First Alerted to Virus By Its Office, Not China

In a dramatic turn around the World Health Organization has said that the organization was alerted about coronavirus by their own office in China and not by China itself.

New revelation seems to be a twist in the story in the background of World Health Organization’s stand, which has been blocking darts hurled at them over the mishandling of the virus and their publicly accepted stand of praising China for their speedy response to the new coronavirus. It often appreciated the Chinese government for sharing the genetic map of the virus “immediately,” and said its work and commitment to transparency were “very impressive, and beyond words.”

Earlier,WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had told a press conference on April 20 that the first report had come from China, without clarifying whether the documents had been sent by Chinese authorities or another source.

But a new timeline, published this week by the WHO, offers a more detailed side of the story.

It specifies that it was the WHO office in China that on December 31 sent its regional point of contact of a case of “viral pneumonia” after having detected a declaration for the media on a Wuhan health commission website on the issue.

The same day, WHO’s epidemic information service received another news report broadcasted by the international epidemiological surveillance network ProMed — based in the United States — about the same group of cases of pneumonia from unknown causes in Wuhan.

After which, WHO asked the Chinese authorities on two occasions, on January 1 and January 2, for information about these cases, which they provided on January 3.

Earlier,the Associated Press had reported that .WHO was frustrated on China’s hesitation to provide sufficient information about coronavirus. Over the significant delays by China to provide information they needed, considerable frustration was prevailing among WHO officials,