World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus laid out the organization’s response to the coronavirus since early January.
“Tomorrow marks 100 days since WHO was notified of the first cases of ‘pneumonia with unknown cause’ in China,” Tedros said.
Here’s the timeline he laid out:
- Tedros said, on Jan. 1, “just hours after we were notified of the first cases, WHO activated its Incident Management Support Team, to coordinate our response at headquarters, regional and country level.”
- Days later, on Jan. 5, WHO notified all member states about the new outbreak and published news of the outbreak on its website, Tedros said.
- Then, on Jan. 10, WHO issued a “comprehensive package of guidance to countries” on how to detect and test potential cases.
- In late January, after the first cases of community spread were reported outside of China, WHO “declared a public health emergency of international concern, our highest level of alarm,” Tedros said. Adding, at the same time, “an international team of experts from Canada, China, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Nigeria, the Russian Federation, Singapore, and the United States of America visited affected provinces in China,” in an effort to learn more about the virus.
- In early February, the United Nations crisis management team was activated, Tedros outlined.
Some context: During a White House press briefing yesterday, President Trump criticized WHO, saying it had mishandled the coronavirus.
Tedros did not mention President Trump in his initial comments about WHO’s response.