China denies report which said Beijing delayed sharing coronavirus info with WHO

China has dismissed a report which claimed Beijing delayed the sharing of information on the novel coronavirus with the World Health Organisation (WHO). An Associated Press report published on June 2 said that China delayed the release of the genetic map of the virus for more than a week after fully decoding the information.

During a regular press briefing on June 3, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said that China informed the WHO about the outbreak of pneumonia on January 3 of which the course was unknown. He added that China CDC succeeded in isolating novel coronavirus strain on January 7 and shared the information on January 9 after holding discussions with experts.

“After scientific and careful comparison, we shared the virus genome sequence with the WHO and made public the whole genome sequence by uploading it to the WHO global database,” said Zhao.

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'Very minimal information'

In stark contrast to China’s claims, the AP report said that though WHO officials lauded Beijing publicly for its virus response, they were frustrated and complained about the delay in private meetings. The internal documents and recordings of the WHO meetings suggested that the UN agency wanted to coax for more information from the government which forced them to laud Beijing.

“We’re going on very minimal information. It’s clearly not enough for you to do proper planning,” said American epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove in one internal meeting. 

Referring to the state-owned China Central Television, Dr Gauden Galea, WHO’s top official in China, said, “We’re currently at the stage where yes, they’re giving it to us 15 minutes before it appears on CCTV".

Last month, WHO member states adopted a resolution that called for an “impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation” of the global COVID-19 response and inquiry into the actions of the WHO and “timelines pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic”. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus said that he will initiate such an evaluation at the earliest appropriate moment.

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(With AP inputs)