China and the World Health Organization (WHO) could have acted faster and more forcefully to contain the start of Covid-19 proliferation, according to an independent review panel.
In its second interim report, the Swiss-based Independent Pandemic Preparedness and Response Panel determined that Beijing could have been more precise in implementing public health measures when the cases were first discovered in Wuhan City. in Hubei province.
"What is clear to the panel is that public health measures could have been implemented more forcefully by local and national health authorities in China in January 2020," the report said.
The first cases in Wuhan occurred between December 12 and December 29, 2019 according to city authorities. The cases were not reported to the WHO until 31 December.
By the time Wuhan went into quarantine (lockdown) on January 23, 2020, the virus had already spread to Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and the United States.
Several countries, most notably the US and Australia, have accused Beijing of neglect in the early stages.
The independent panel, which also includes former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, also criticized the WHO for its delays in sounding the alarm and called for reforms at the United Nations agency. .
Despite being warned of cases at the end of December 2019, the WHO did not convene its emergency committee until 22 January 2020 and then waited until 30 January before declaring an international emergency.
"It is not clear why the committee did not meet until the third week of January, nor is it clear why it was unable to agree on declaring a public health emergency of international concern when it was first convened." , was written in the report.
The report also noted that the WHO did not declare the outbreak a "pandemic" until March 11, 2020, after some health experts and the media began approving the term.
At that time, there were about 118,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths worldwide.
The report concludes that the WHO "did not do the job properly."
"The international community needs to achieve a 'global reset' on how pandemics are handled."
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Source: CNN, The Guardian
