Virus Outbreak: Taiwan warned WHO, China on virus last year

The Taipei Times ^ | March 25, 2020 | By Lin Chia-nan

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Taiwan warned the WHO and China about possible human-to-human transmission of the new coronavirus at the end of last year, but the global health body did not make it public, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.

Department of International Organizations Director-General Bob Chen made the remark at a news briefing in Taipei, when asked about statements made by US Department of State spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus.

“Dec. 31 - that’s the same day Taiwan first tried to warn WHO of human-human transmission. Chinese authorities meanwhile silenced doctors and refused to admit human-human transmission until Jan. 20, with catastrophic consequences,” Ortagus wrote on Twitter yesterday.

Her tweet was in response to a post by Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying, who wrote that the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission had issued a notice about the virus on Dec. 31 last year.

The commission’s notice reported 27 cases, including seven severe ones, in Wuhan, but said that no obvious transmission among people had been observed.

The Centers for Disease Control on Dec. 31 last year did ask China and the WHO’s International Health Regulations contact for information about the abnormal outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan, while the ministry’s representative office in Geneva, Switzerland, also contacted the WHO secretariat, Chen said.

On the same day, the centers started implementing onboard inspections on direct flights from Wuhan landing in Taiwan, he said.

The WHO later replied that it received the message and would transfer it to other experts, but did not make it public, he said.

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