China defends early action against Covid-19 outbreak following panel report

On Tuesday, China defended its early action to combat the COVID-19 outbreak, saying it immediately notified the World Health Organization and took “the most comprehensive, thorough, strict prevention and control measures”.

“In the face of the unknown SARS-CoV-2, China immediately notified the WHO of the epidemic situation, shared the virus genome sequence at the earliest possible time and took the most comprehensive, thorough, strict prevention and control measures,” Sun Yang of China’s National Health Commission told the WHO Executive Board. .

The remarks come a day after the independent WHO panel said Chinese officials could have applied public health measures more forcefully in January last year to limit cases.

Some passages in the interim report from the panel chaired by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf are “inconsistent with the facts,” Sun said.

(REUTERS)