The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday admitted that it had miscalculated the global threat risk due to the outbreak of the new coronavirus, pegging the revised threat perception at the global level in its situation report as “high.”
“WHO’s assessment of the risk of this event has not changed since the last risk assessment conducted on 22 January: very high in China, high at the regional level and high at the global level,” the United Nations (UN) health body said in its situation report released late on Sunday evening.
In its report a day before on Jan 25, WHO had labelled the global risk due to coronavirus as “moderate,” copping criticism from health experts who accused it of biased in favour of China. Many experts have attributed WHO’s soft stance towards China to its economic clout over the organisation.
The WHO has also received flak for not declaring the outbreak as a public health emergency, even as experts believe that the criteria for such announcing the decision have already been met. London-based publication The Daily Telegraph quoted Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health and US-based think tank Council on Foreign Relations as saying, “The criteria for declaring a public health emergency of international concern have been met."
At a meeting in Geneva last week, WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu refused to declare the new coronavirus as a global emergency, saying that more information was necessary.
As per Chinese health authorities, there are over 2,000 confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by coronavirus in China, including 461 in critical condition. A total of 5,794 suspected cases have also been reported. So far 80 deaths caused by the deadly virus have been reported in China.
In India, the Health Ministry has circulated advisories and signage across international ports and airports in India, including Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. According to the ministry, a total of 29,707 passengers from 137 flights have been screened so far.
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