WHO Secretary-General: "Sufficient Response Time When Declaring a Health Emergency"

Rebuttal to Late Response Criticism
COVID-19 Emergency Committee Unanimously Agrees to Maintain International Public Health Emergency Status

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General
[Photo by Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] The World Health Organization (WHO) claimed on the 1st (local time) that the timing of declaring the 'Public Health Emergency of International Concern' (PHEIC) due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) was sufficient for responding to the virus.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made this claim during a briefing, informing about the contents of the COVID-19 Emergency Committee meeting held the previous day.

Amid growing criticism, especially from the United States, regarding WHO's delayed response to COVID-19, Director-General Ghebreyesus maintained that there was no problem with WHO's actions on this day as well.

He stated, "When the COVID-19 Emergency Committee judged COVID-19 as a PHEIC, there were only 82 confirmed cases outside China and no deaths," adding, "The world had enough time to respond."

At that time, the Emergency Committee convened to decide whether to declare a PHEIC but postponed the decision citing the need for accurate information, drawing criticism for appearing to defer to China. WHO's PHEIC declaration was only made on January 31, when the spread of COVID-19 within China had explosively increased.

Regarding questions about relations with the United States, Director-General Ghebreyesus only replied, "We are in continuous contact and cooperating."

On this day, the independent advisory body, the COVID-19 Emergency Committee, unanimously agreed that COVID-19 still constitutes a PHEIC. The committee was convened for the third time since the first reported cases of COVID-19 outbreak in China at the end of last year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.