COVID-19 Early Alarm Fell On Some Deaf Ears – WHO

• WHO said too many countries thought the problem would simply pass them by

Nearly a year after first describing Covid-19 as a pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) complained on Monday that some failed to listen to its earlier urgent warnings.

The WHO sounded its highest available level of alarm on January 30, 2020 by declaring a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).

AFP reports that it was not until it used the word “pandemic” — which does not feature in the official international health alert system — on March 11 that many countries jumped into action.

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WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said some countries were slow to wake up to the risks of the novel coronavirus after the PHEIC declaration, when, outside China, there were fewer than 100 cases of Covid-19 and no deaths.

“One of the things we still need to understand is why some countries acted on those warnings, while others were slower to react,” he told a press conference.

“We continued to warn that the world had a narrow window of opportunity to prepare for and prevent a potential pandemic,” he insisted, adding that the description was finally deployed on March 11 after the number of affected countries and cases soared.

“But we must be clear that that was not the moment at which we sounded the highest level of alarm.”

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