A report by an independent panel says that China and the World Health Organisation (WHO) acted too slowly to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR) established by WHO in May 2020 also said that China and WHO could have acted more forcefully to contain the early onset of the pandemic. The IPPR is co-chaired by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
The Switzerland-based panel in its report released on January 18, had the panel call for an overhaul of health alert and response systems, saying the current system is “not fit for purpose”.
“What is clear to the Panel is that public health measures could have been applied more forcefully by local and national health authorities in China in January,” the report said as quoted by CNN.
UK's former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Ian Duncan Smith, on Saturday labelled Beijing as despicable for covering up vital information about COVID-19. The US, in the initial months, that the pandemic broke out, accused China of not being transparent about the origins of the virus.
According to authorities in Wuhan, the first cases in the city occurred between December 12 and December 29, 2019. As per the report, by the time Wuhan went into lockdown on January 23 2020, the virus had already spread to Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and the US.
WHO did not convene its emergency committee until January 22, 2020, and did not declare an International emergency before January 30.
“In retrospect, it is clear that the volume of infections in the early period of the epidemic in all countries was higher than reported,” the report read.
The WHO did not call it a pandemic until March 11, 2020.
